Reading out loud to your child is one of the best things you can do in preparation for school and to help him or her develop a love of learning and strong language skills. If your baby is 6 months old or younger, you can boost the benefits of reading out loud to Bub by choosing black and white baby books as young babies and newborns respond best to high-contrast black and white images.
After talking to some other mothers on Facebook one day, I became interested in learning about the shared reading practices of Australian families. I wanted to know who reads out loud to Aussie kids, how long our children are being read out loud to, whether shared reading is decreasing and what would encourage families to do more shared reading. I found some data but not a great deal and there were some issues with some of what I did find so I decided to do my own little study and publish the results on my blog so that others could learn from it.
In a survey I recently conducted, one of the most common reasons why parents and carers didn’t read out loud to their children more was because either they or their children didn’t have enough time. Given how important it is to read out loud to children, I thought I’d share some tips on how to build more shared reading into your daily routine.
So your child can read by him/herself now and you think you should stop reading out loud to him/her? No! There are many benefits to continuing.
Many parents wanting to do what’s best for their child wonder when they should start reading to their child. Before birth? Immediately after birth? At 6 months of age? Some also wonder whether they should only be reading to their child at bedtime. If this sounds familiar, find out all you need to know to make the right reading decision for your child.