Reading aloud to children will enhance their reading comprehension skills for life. It promotes your child's growth as a reader; it enhances her quest for knowledge. Benefits vary depending on the age of your child, but literacy skills, including vocabulary and comprehension, receive a strong boost no matter when you start.
Babies
When you read aloud to your baby, not only will she hear sounds, but she will also perceive rhythms and words. From this activity, your baby will eventually start to mimic sounds: speech, even though it resembles babbling. The next natural step is for your baby to take those sounds and develop words.
At this young age, a parent should point to illustrations that can be identified. This helps the baby associate a picture with a tangible object.
Pre-Readers
Before your child learns the mechanics of reading, she listens to a story and looks through the book on her own or shares it with friends. She builds her vocabulary with words she understands and can use. Rhyme and repetition are mastered at this age.
Picture books augment reading, but keep in mind that illustrations tell the story without letting your child use her imagination. To encourage creativity, read without showing the pictures the first time you introduce a story to your child. Developmentally, your child will begin to associate pictures and print as symbols and differentiate that written words are to be read.
Listening skills continue to develop. Reading aloud helps your child notice similarities and differences in the sounds of words. Your child will discover fundamental grammar and usage skills, such as word order and spacing.
Elementary School-Age Children
Reading aloud continues to improve basic literacy, especially reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. Children listen on a higher literacy level than they read. Listening to others read accelerates understanding of vocabulary and language patterns.
Illustrations encourage prediction and interpretation. This type of critical thinking is essential for comprehension and application of story elements.
Throughout elementary school, your child will be introduced to key story elements including plot, setting and characterization. Reading aloud, followed by a question and discussion time, builds a strong tie between literature and your child's life experiences. This is an essential learning outcome that parents and teachers want students to accomplish.
Teenagers
Even at this age, your child will continue to develop language and vocabulary skills if you read aloud together. Reading helps families remain connected. Set aside a special time each day to read and discuss literature. Reading aloud also establishes a lifelong tie to reading.
Reading aloud to children introduces basic concepts, including vocabulary and listening skills, and builds a lifetime connection with the written word.
 | Reading to children from birth can begin a lifelong love of books. Even the youngest children love books because of their colors, stories and the time they spend with you while reading. |
 | Teaching reading readiness can happen naturally from infancy if parents are aware of the kinds of activities that encourage learning to read. |
 | Is your child having trouble grasping the importance of literature? Help your child appreciate literature by explaining its role in culture and the arts. |
 | Learn how to identify the five most commonly used types of conflict in literature. |
Several of these books on this classic literature reading list are commonly taught in middle school English classes, so adding them to a summer reading list can give your child an advantage when they come up during the school year. |
