Why Reading Aloud is Good for Your Child

Reading aloud to your child has so many benefits! Read to find out the benefits you give your child when you read texts aloud to them. 

Recently, my daughter found several chapter book series she loves. She has fallen in love with the cute Purrmaids and lives vicariously through Cressida and her visits with the Unicorn Princesses. The animal adventures of The Puppy Place series and the Pet Rescue Adventure series have also captured her attention. She is so enthralled with these stories that she carries a chapter book with her where ever she goes. We read each time we have a few minutes.

This voracious appetite for books is so refreshing. For a while, she complained about reading and asked to do something else. Getting her to read the book she brought home from school had become a chore.

Even though we encourage reading and her school does a fantastic job teaching reading through a reading workshop approach, she still wanted to do other things than read. While I was disappointed, I knew that if we continued to look for books  on topics she was interested in and I switched to reading aloud more than asking her to read books “on her level,” she would gain her interest back. (To learn more about reading levels and how to support your child at each level check out my Reading Level Series)

The Power of Reading Aloud to Children

When children are read to they

• are able to hear stories or learn about content that they would not have be able to experience if they were limited to the print they were currently able to read.

•  visualize what is being read by creating images in their mind.

• synthesize information presented across a longer text.

• notice patterns across a text and even from text to text.

A few years ago I had an article published in The Reading Teacher, a journal for educators, about the benefits of interactive read alouds in the classroom. In that article, I shared several key points for classroom teachers to consider when planning interactive read alouds. Interactive read alouds are such a powerful classroom practice that I have carried over some of the elements in our reading at home. Here are some ways that you can offer support and prompt deeper thinking at home when you read aloud:

•  Periodically pause and ask your child what is happening in that part of the book. Also ask, how that part of the text goes with the parts before.

• If a character has a strong emotion, makes a big decision, or does something unexpected, you can ask your child to think about what is happening at that moment. Prompt them to think about what they know about the character and the situation.

• Ask your child to make a prediction about what will come next.

• Prompt your child to make connections to other books about the same topic or in the same series.

• Stop and ask what else the character could have done or how else the author could have presented a topic.

  (One of my favorites is how Derek and Beverly Joubert present lions in Face to Face with Lions.)

• Ask your child if they agree or disagree with what is happening in the text or the way this information is presented.

• At the end of the book, ask your child to think about the lesson in the story or the message the author is trying to send. Ask your child if they agree or disagree (encourage them to provide evidence from the text).

Books offer so many opportunities for learning and exploring. Reading aloud to your child can present these opportunities in a deeper and more sophisticated way. Enjoy reading to your child and know that they are doing more sophisticated reading work than you could ever imagine. Reading aloud can set your child up for greater reading success and a deeper understanding of what they read as they are able to decode (read the print) more and more.

Leave a comment and let us know what you love best about reading aloud with your child.