Why read to kids ...
... a little every day until they're 18?
Note from Jeff: We’ll be back to our regular story schedule next month. This felt important to share right now.
Why read to kids?
Or, more specifically: Why read to your kids a little every day until they're 18?
Because it’s the best standardized-test prep there is.
Because it helps kids learn to think and learn to feel.
Because it helps kids become their best selves.
Because it just might heal our troubled species.
Because it’s fun.
Dedication
This is for every kid who doesn't love reading.
Yet.
Caveat: I'm just some guy
I am not a literacy expert like Frank Serafini or Steven Layne.
I am not an academic like Maryanne Wolf or an intellectual like Daniel Pennac.
I am not a journalist who's written a book on reading aloud like Meghan Cox Gurdon or Jim Trelease.
And I'm not a beloved read-aloud evangelist like Mem Fox.
But …
I've spent the last couple years reading books by all those people and more. (That is, when I haven't been writing kids books myself, running a publishing company, and doing my day job as a marketing executive.)
I've also talked to hundreds of parents and teachers around the world.
And what I've discovered is that reading to kids is powerful.
Ridiculously powerful. It's right up there with food, shelter, and unconditional love.
My goal in writing this short paper is to let you know why. So, if you are …
a parent or caregiver wondering if there's a "right way" to do reading aloud,
an educator who needs to justify reading aloud to young students,
or, an educator who needs to justify reading aloud to older students,
consider this a starting point and a cheat sheet.
Then, go deeper as time allows. (There's a source list below.) You don't have to take my word for it!
Look, I'm not saying that reading to kids a little every day from birth to age 18 is the great leveler, or that it will help save democracy, or that it will lead the human race forward.
Actually, screw that.
That's exactly what I'm saying.
1. Read to your kids …
Because doctors recommended it
In 2014, the American Academy of Pediatrics published a policy paper extolling the benefits of reading aloud to young children.
“Reading regularly with young children," the paper explained, "stimulates optimal patterns of brain development, and strengthens parent-child relationships at a critical time in child development, which, in turn, builds language, literacy, and social-emotional skills that last a lifetime.”
Because reading is attention is love
Reading is attention
“At the end of the day, I go into my son’s room. I don’t wear a watch. I switch off my computer, so I can’t hear the email pinging into the basket, and I just slow down to his pace and we read.”
— Carl Honore, journalist and author of "In Praise of Slow"
Attention is love
“The principal form that the work of love takes is attention. When we love another we give him or her our attention; we attend to that person’s growth.”
— M. Scott Peck, psychologist and author of "The Road Less Traveled"
Reading is love
“There are few things that feel to a person like they are more cherished or taken care of. There’s being fed, and then there’s someone reading to you.”
— LeVar Burton, actor and longtime host of "Reading Rainbow"
Because eight more reasons
1. Reading to kids helps kids learn to read on their own.
2. Hearing stories read aloud helps kids learn to love reading, which makes them more likely to do it themselves.
3. Reading aloud helps kids develop academic skills, like …
… active listening, comprehension, critical thinking, fluency, inflection, syntactic development, pronunciation, vocabulary acquisition, and writing. (For more details, see the Resources section below, especially the work of Steven Layne.)
4. Reading aloud helps kids develop human skills, like …
… attention, curiosity, cultural sensitivity, emotional intelligence, empathy, self-discipline, imagination, and self-esteem. (For more details, see the Resources section below, especially the work of Meghan Cox Gurdon.)
5. Reading aloud deepens family bonds.
6. Reading aloud deepens classroom bonds.
7. Reading aloud is fun.
I know this sounds like a subjective statement. But there's a way to confirm its veracity. Just find the nearest child and read aloud to them the "Quokka" poem from the book Ooh Odd Zoo: 25 Unusual Animals and 1 Ordinary Larva, by me.
Suggestion from a reader: Make it chocolate, not medicine
Dr. Wilhelm Henry (Billy) Meyer is a professor of biblical studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Here's what he told me in an interview.
"We have dinner in the evening and reading aloud is part of the washing up. It combines family time and chores, and makes them fairly pleasurable. Conversation happens and we put stuff away.
Getting into family time might mean that we start sharing and talking about stuff, and then we generally start reading. We often read funny books. We try to have entertaining novels, and there might be a discussion about something in the novel.
The important thing is to make it chocolate, not medicine."
A good book is an empathy machine.
— Chris Riddell, children's book illustrator
2. … a little every day …
HOW to read to kids
You really only need to do three things.
1. Make it a habit.
15 minutes a day is enough.
2. Read any time.
Bedtime. Breakfast time. After school. Road trips. During dinner cleanup. Etc. etc.
3. Have fun.
As children's book author and literacy expert Mem Fox says, "Entertainment IS the teacher."
More HOW — 17 tips for Parents and Caregivers
1. Start small.
Begin with picture books you can read in one sitting.
2. Start early.
For infants and toddlers, include books with repetitions. As children mature, add predictable and rhyming books.
3. If you haven't started early, start now.
4. Start with anything.
Books, news articles, song lyrics, poems, cereal boxes.
5. Keep at it.
Persistence works.
6. Come as you are.
You don't have to be an actor. Besides, the story will let you know how it wants to be read.
7. Pick something you like, too.
8. Skip the boring bits.
9. Ask questions ...
What’s this? How do you think they felt? Do you know what that means? What do you think will happen next?
10. … but not too many questions.
11. Got kids of different ages?
Experiment. See which books they like best.
12. Kids won't sit still?
Let them move around.
13. Read with props.
For example, if you're reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, have chocolate on hand.
14. If you're away from home, read aloud via video chat.
15. Every once in a while, read above your child’s intellectual level.
16. Read physical books, if you can.
Research shows that it creates a better experience than reading from a device. (But reading aloud from anything beats not reading aloud at all.)
17. Let kids see you reading.
Even more HOW — 10 tips for educators
1. Make sure kids are comfortable.
2. Have a seating plan.
3. Schedule regular read-aloud time.
4. Put a "Do not disturb" sign on the classroom door.
Open it for no one.
5. Before you read, give students a quick preview of what the story is about.
Read the back cover.
6. After you read, debrief.
7. Some kids need to draw.
Have them draw what they “see” as they listen.
8. Some kids need to fidget.
Give them something to fidget with.
9. Pick a story that's meaningful to you.
10. When you're selecting an appropriate read-aloud book, remember that kids' listening level is about two grades higher than their reading level until around eighth grade.
Suggestion from a reader: Read A Wrinkle in Time to students
Sharon Felton is a former third-grade teacher from Rancho Cucamonga, California. Here's what she told me in an interview.
I would start with some short books the first week or two. I would have books that you could just read in one sitting.
The Magic Fan is really good, by Keith Baker. It has incredible artwork. I'd start with stuff like that. Then maybe I'd move on to something like Junie B. Jones Has a Peep in Her Pocket. And then by the end of the year, they'd be ready for A Wrinkle in Time, which is my all-time favorite.
It has a variety of really interesting worlds and interesting characters, and the girl, Meg, the lead character — she's kind of a reluctant hero. She thinks of herself as kind of ugly and she wears glasses and she's getting in trouble. Even if they don't get in trouble, kids can identify with that feeling of "I'm not being good enough." Then her little brother, who is so smart, he's the one that ends up having to be rescued.
We talked about this one world they go to, Camazotz, where everything is the same. They bounce their balls the same, they dress the same. I said, "How much of that is good and how much of it is not?" And we got into really good discussions. Because I said, "They're probably not fighting, but they're probably not having any fun either. And I said, "Do people like that even dream? What would they dream if they don't do anything all day?"
And they'd give an amazing variety of answers. Kids, if you let them go, if you just give them permission to think outside the box, it is amazing what they do.
When a child asks for the same story "again, again," they are telling us something important, though we may never find out what that important thing is. The book may be helping them perform quiet interior work having to do with fear or sadness that they can't articulate. The book may be an old friend whose familiarity feels comforting at bedtime.
— Meghan Cox Gurdon, The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction
3. … until they're 18 …
You can ignore most of the prevailing rules
Ted Gioia is famous in his neighborhood — not because of his venture capital work or his acclaimed books on jazz — but because both of his sons went to Harvard.
This, despite the fact that he and his wife kept both boys in public school from kindergarten through high school and, as he writes, "ignored almost every other prevailing rule for success.”
So what was his secret?
“Above all, I read to my children. I did it every night without fail, except when I had to travel. This is the single most important thing I did for their intellectual development. I enjoyed reading these stories, and they enjoyed hearing them—and everyone in the family came to accept the idea that books were fun.”
Read to high-schoolers
In his book In Defense of Read-Aloud, Steven Layne writes, “Reading aloud should be emphasized not only in the home but also in the classroom, continuously throughout grades K-12.”
Literacy experts Frank Serafini and Cyndi Giorgis agree. In Reading Aloud and Beyond: Fostering the Intellectual Life with Older Readers, they list 13 reasons to read aloud to older children, including:
reading aloud builds community
reading aloud offers access to books students may not be able to experience on their own
reading aloud is fun
Serafini and Giorgis also note that “Increased test scores may be a fortunate, though indirect, consequence of reading aloud, but it should not drive every instructional and curricular decision we make.”
Suggestion from me: Don't try too hard
It can be overwhelming to create a new habit, even when we know a new habit is good for us. Like reading to kids.
We're easily distracted. We're tired. We're stuck in our ruts.
Or is that just me?
My weaknesses tend to cluster around watching TV, bingeing on New Zealand black licorice, and mindlessly surfing around the web when I should be working.
My solution? It's not to rely on willpower. (After reading Charles Duhigg's book The Power of Habit, I came to accept that willpower is overrated.) Instead, I just put friction between me and my temptations.
The reason I don't watch a lot of TV is because I don't have a TV. Or subscriptions to any streaming service. If I want to watch something, I have to rent it and watch it on my laptop.
The reason I don't eat a lot of sweets is because I don't buy a lot of sweets. If it's late at night and I really want a bag of licorice, I have to go to the store. And that's too much effort, so I just have a spoonful of raspberry jam instead.
The reason I don't web surf when I'm working is because when it's time for me to focus, I launch a distraction blocker. So even if I want to visit that Italian real estate website, I can't. (Well, I could look on my phone. But my phone is way over there and I don't feel like getting up.)
I'm not trying to punish myself.
I just want to create an environment where I eat better, read more, and create as much as possible. Because in the long run, doing those things makes me happy and makes life meaningful.
The point is that it's a lot easier to change your system than to change yourself.
Here are some suggestions for how to tweak your home environment in order to foster reading. (No. 6 is the best one.)
1. Set boundaries.
Limit TV time. Get rid of all but one TV. Let go of a streaming subscription. Etc.
2. Read first.
Then watch TV.
3. Forget willpower.
Instead, make it harder to be distracted. Keep your phone in a basket by the front door. Use an analog alarm clock.
4. Read every day.
Some days you'll read more and some days you'll read less. Just keep going.
5. Start slow.
It can take time to create a healthy reading environment. It will also feel uncomfortable before it feels indispensable. So be kind to yourself. Start slow and grow.
6. Think: FART
Reading aloud is a keystone habit — a good habit that catalyzes other good habits, like individuation, empathy, and critical thinking.
If you really want your kids on board with reading aloud, read together as a family.
If your kids are reluctant, give the family read-aloud time a name.
Call it Families All Reading Together.
They'll love the acronym.
"Reading out loud is probably the least expensive and most effective intervention we can make for the good of our families, and for our culture."
— Meghan Cox Gurdon, The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction, Meghan Cox Gurdon
4. … to help them become their best selves …
"No child is completely a captive of a sad childhood if he can read and has books; they are the window to what can be, and that is the underlying message of "The Mighty."
— Roger Ebert, from his review of the 1998 movie "The Mighty"
Here's how it was for me.
In my family, obedience was love. So, like a lot of kids, I learned to equate my self-worth with parental approval. But since the approval was transitory, so were the feelings of self-worth.
Books were, for me, a refuge and a window.
A refuge because when I read, I couldn't hear the voices that at all other times told me I was not enough.
A window because to read is to see other ways of being. I read and I learned it was possible to accept oneself. That I wasn't alone.
Reading is a path — not the path, but a path — to individuation.
As Jungian scholar Janes Hollis writes, individuation is "the lifelong project of becoming more nearly the whole person we were meant to be—what the Universe intended, not the parents, or the tribe, or, especially, the easily intimidated or inflated ego."
I'm still reading. Still learning. Still listening.
But I have become the person I was meant to be.
4. … (and maybe save the world)
Reading is essential to thinking
In his book Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman writes:
From Erasmus in the sixteenth century to Elizabeth Eisenstein in the twentieth, almost every scholar who has grappled with the question of what reading does to one’s habits of mind has concluded that the process encourages rationality; that the sequential, propositional character of the written word fosters what Walter Ong calls the “analytic management of knowledge.” To engage the written word means to follow a line of thought, which requires considerable powers of classifying, inference-making and reasoning. It means to uncover lies, confusions, and overgeneralizations, to detect abuses of logic and common sense. It also means to weigh ideas, to compare and contrast assertions, to connect one generalization to another.
Reading is essential to democracy
In her book Reader Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World, Maryanne Wolf writes:
The great, insufficiently discussed danger to a democracy stems not from the expression of different views but from the failure to ensure that all citizens are educated to use their full intellectual powers in forming those views. The vacuum that occurs when this is not realized leads ineluctably to a vulnerability to demagoguery, where falsely raised hopes and falsely raised fears trump reason and the capacity for reflective thinking recedes, along with its influence on rational, empathic decision making.
So … read to your kids, freedom fighter.
Our future depends on it.
Plus, it's fun.
And, most important of all, remember the quokka …
If there was an institute
for animals considered cute,
the quokka, a marsupial,
would be its foremost pupial.
Quokkas live in West Australia
and are the cheerfulest mammalia.
They think of predators as friends,
which often leads them to bad ends.
Still, nothing's better than a quokka,
except, perhaps, a flokka quokka.
6. One last thing: Sometimes you have to dance
Karissa Pelletier is a preschool teacher in Golden, British Columbia. Here's what she told me in an interview.
"With our circle time read-aloud, we just play it by ear. Like some days it could be 20 minutes, some days it could be four minutes. There are definitely days where we don't get through a book where I have to put it down and just dance."
Resources
What to read
If you're wondering where to find a great book to read to kids, you can find 300+ suggestions for readers of all ages via our Dana’s Rec Room post.
Or, ask a teacher.
Or, wander through a library or bookstore with your child and see what catches their interest.
Or, start with any "banned books" list.
Books on reading to kids
Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever, Mem Fox
The Enchanted Hour: The Miraculous Power of Reading Aloud in the Age of Distraction, Meghan Cox Gurdon
In Defense of Read-Aloud: Sustaining Best Practice, Steven Layne
Better Than Life, Daniel Pennac
Reading Aloud and Beyond: Fostering the Intellectual Life with Older Readers, Frank Serafini and Cyndi Giorgis
Jim Trelease's Read-Aloud Handbook: Eighth Edition, Jim Trelease and Cyndi Giorgis
Reader, Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World, Maryanne Wolfe
Interviews
Meyer, Dr. Wilhelm Henry, professor of biblical studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.
Felton, Sharon, former third-grade teacher from Rancho Cucamonga, California.
Pelletier, Karissa, preschool teacher in Golden, British Columbia
Websites
Article
I write a Parenting Advice Column, by Ted Gioia
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