Do You Read to Your Child?
By: John Edelson
Learning to read is an exciting time for children and their families. Learning to read successfully is the culmination of many steps. And the early stages of the reading process combines two skills that go hand in hand: phonics and vocabulary. Simply put, phonics is the understanding of how letters combine to make sounds and words. And this starts with, what else, the alphabet. Phonics skills grow as students distinguish between vowels and consonants and understand letter combinations.
Once a child learns that words are made up of different sounds that come together, they develop phonemic awareness. This is usually learned by rhyming words and nursery rhymes, which is why reading to your children daily is so important.
Do You Read to Your Child?
Reading to and with your child does so much for them. Not only does it create a closer relationship with you, it also helps build speech and communication skills, build their vocabulary and shows them that reading is fun.
- Consider this: Reading a million words, which equals about 25-30 books, can add 1,000 words to a student’s vocabulary. And while it’s important for kids to read, it’s even more important that they like reading and make a daily habit of it.
Creating a rich language environment by reading to your child and during everyday conversation, also helps with their vocabulary.
So just how important is vocabulary? Well, considering that it is the key to reading, writing and verbal expression, we’d say it’s very important. A child’s vocabulary growth is influenced by the amount of conversation, the nature of the conversation (the vocabulary used) and the “word awareness” of the family members. A strong vocabulary also helps develop analytical and critical thinking skills.
Want more? Take advantage of educational websites like Vocabulary Learning Fun. They offer word games which develop reading and phonics skills.
Thanks for reading.
Sincerely,
John Edelson
Founder, Time4Learning