To teach a child to read for 66 days: expert recommendations
'21.05.2019'
Source: Forbes Russia
Brett Blumenthal and Daniel Shi Tan have been working in the field of a healthy lifestyle for more than thirty years. They developed a program to help families acquire healthy habits for the year. One of them is reading. How to make it part of your daily routine and instill a love of books for your children?
One small change a week - and by the end of the year, 52 good habits will enter your family life, assure Brett Blumenthal and Daniel Shi Tan in their book One Habit a Week for the Whole Family, writes Forbes. While introducing new habits - continue to get used to the already acquired. The authors talk about a study conducted by a psychologist at University College London, Philippa Lally. As part of it, subjects taught themselves to eat fruit every day. It took an average of sixty-six days — about nine and a half weeks.
One of the useful habits that the authors advise to acquire (or to return, if it has been lost over time) is reading. Moreover, it is the parents, not teachers and no one else, who form the habit of reading in children.
Reading before bed is a good old tradition that most of us have fond memories. Reading reduces stress, which means it helps to relax before bedtime. And even when the child has learned to read independently, you should not stop the wonderful evening readings. All children, and kids, and even teens, like when they read. And the advantages of such a joint pastime are obvious. In the modern world of technology, reading for the pleasure of older children may seem old-fashioned. The National Center for Education Statistics notes that the proportion of adolescents reading just for fun has dropped from 35 to 27% in children aged 13 and from 31 to 19% in 17-year-olds. But reading remains an important skill that requires constant practice and development.
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Unlike watching TV or video, reading is a process that activates neural connections in the brain, which means it makes us smarter. In one study, scientists scanned the brains of children between the ages of three and five, while they were listening to an audio recording of a book, and found activity in several areas of the left side of the brain. And this activity was higher in those children in whose families more attention was paid to reading. Reading to your children, providing them with access to books and various literature, you contribute to the development of neural connections in their brains, which leads to improved comprehension skills, vocabulary expansion and better language proficiency.
Whether the child reads himself or listens to you, this in any case develops creative thinking, allowing you to fantasize and draw pictures from the book in your imagination. Reading develops emotional skills. Studies show that reading children increases their literacy even more than regular conversation. Scientists have found that the words used in children's illustrated books are much more expressive than the five thousand words commonly used in conversations with children. According to the research of Thomas Stiht, children's hearing skills are better developed than reading comprehension skills. They need to hear the words in the context of use to learn to speak or understand them while reading. Therefore, the earlier a child becomes acquainted with more advanced words and books, the richer his vocabulary will be, the more literate he will grow.
Parents, more than anyone else, form in their children a love of reading and reading skills. Children of any age like when they read out loud. As some studies show, attention, interest, motivation and involvement in the subject of secondary schoolchildren increase if the teacher reads aloud during the lesson. This practice in the education system of America is slowly gaining momentum.
Creating your own reading habits has a very positive effect on both health and general well-being. Regardless of age, reading strengthens creative thinking and intelligence, because you gain new knowledge and develop language skills.
We are changing. We read together
The path to change. Reading with children is not just good for mental balance, it helps to rally the family. More than 82% of children name their parents as people who inspired them to read. Our tips will help make reading a pleasant habit for the whole family.
Make reading a part of everyday life. Let reading become your habit and become an integral part of every day. Read before bedtime. Make reading part of the bedtime ritual. Begin to get ready for bed earlier, so that the whole family can enjoy the joint reading of a good book. And although older children already know how to read themselves, studies show that they still love them when their relatives read them.
Read to relax. Try to find a time when the whole family can relax and read together to relax and get away from the noise of modern life. If you cannot do this every day, enter a rule at least weekly to read together. Read on vacation. Vacations are the perfect time when children and adults can relax. Get into the tradition of taking new books with you when you travel. This also applies to summer holidays. Children who read with pleasure in the summer are not subject to the so-called summer decline in perception skills, which occurs when a child does not attend school for a long time.
Always with you. To take the kids on a trip, take some interesting new books with you instead of toys. Be an example for older children, let them take something to read with them too.
Go to the library. Go to the library with the whole family. Many different books have been collected there, and incredible discoveries are waiting for you! In most libraries there are special children's departments, where your younger ones can immerse themselves in studying books. Ask a librarian to find stories for your children that you read as a child. When the children find what they like, ask if they can take these books home.
Give books. For birthdays and other holidays, give the children certificates in bookstores. Let them explore the filled shelves themselves, as many shops inspire little readers with their atmosphere. Look at books labeled “bestseller” and “store selection.” Relax and enjoy the setting, look through the new books, sitting in a comfortable chair, before choosing the ones you want to buy.
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Book children in a book club. Book clubs inspire little readers: there you can find like-minded people with whom you can discuss what you read. Support your child, help him find a suitable book club or create his own.
Use books to learn. Learning through the stories told in books is a great way to reinforce children's social and emotional skills. They associate themselves with the characters of the stories, and the influence of the parents is completely unnecessary for this. There are many stories that will help teach the child to the pot and tell you how to manage pocket money. Friends of teachers, librarians or consultants in stores will recommend proven books.
Help the children with a selection of books. Often interest in reading in children falls when it becomes difficult for them to find interesting books. According to the 2016 family reading report of the year, 41% of all children and 57% of those who are not reading can find it difficult to choose books that they would be interested in. Ask other parents or librarians which books or series your family can taste.
Try audiobooks. Applications for electronic devices allow children and adults to access a variety of audio books. Many parents resort to using audiobooks to reduce the time that a child spends in front of the screen, but in addition to this, audiobooks instill a love of reading. They will be useful for children of all ages, because listening to stories does not depend on the speed of reading, but at the same time increases literacy and expands vocabulary. In addition, the child can always check with the paper book.
Read e-books. Various gadgets and e-books open the door to hundreds of editions that may not be in libraries and stores. If your older children are constantly in their phones, help them find e-books that will ignite interest in reading. If you are going on a trip, bring your e-books with you, so as not to drag a lot of volumes for the whole family.
Communication with the authors. Older children and adults may like the stories from the lives of writers, told by themselves. You can attend meetings of writers with readers.
