Start Early: The First Three Years

Just as a child develops language skills long before being able to speak, the

child also develops literacy skills long before being able to read. What

parents do, or don't do, has a lasting impact on their child's reading skill

and literacy.

Children develop much of their capacity for learning in the first three

years of life, when their brains grow to 90% of their eventual adult weight.

When parents talk, sing, and read to their child, links among the child's

brain cells are strengthened and new cells and links are formed.

Play is the work of young children. From the first lullaby to

dramatization of a favorite story, music and other creative arts can

stimulate language and literacy development. Parents can help build

pre-literacy skills through dramatic play and one-on-one interaction.

Many pediatricians believe that a child who has never held a book or

listened to a story is not a fully healthy child. Reading aloud to young

children is so critical that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends

that doctors prescribe reading activities along with other advice given to

parents at regular check-ups.

Despite the considerable evidence of a relationship between reading

regularly to a child and that child's later reading development, six in ten

babies and five in ten toddlers are not read to regularly by parents or

family members.

Nurture Your Budding Reader: The Preschooler

Preschoolers with large vocabularies tend to become proficient readers.

Parents who talk and read with their children can greatly enhance their

vocabularies. The vocabulary of the average children's book is greater than

that found on prime-time television. Yet more than four in ten preschoolers

are not read to regularly.

Children ages 3 to 5 spend an average of 13 hours and 28 minutes a week

watching television. When children are plugged into television instead of

reading books, they are not developing key literacy skills that will prepare

them for school and help them learn.

The single most significant predictor of children's literacy is their

mother's literacy level. The more education a mother has, the more likely she

is to read to her child.

Some experts believe that for America's poorest children, the biggest

obstacle to literacy is the scarcity of books in many homes. And while books

are available at public libraries, only 37% of 3 to 5-year olds visit a

library at least once a month.

Ready to Read: Heading for the Classroom

Parents are truly their children's first and most important teachers. It is

clear that parents should not leave to schools alone the important tasks of

language and literacy development.

Reading to a child for 30 minutes per day from infancy helps prepare a

child to learn. A five-year old who has not been read to daily will enter

kindergarten with far fewer hours of "literacy nutrition" than a child who

has been read to daily from infancy. No teacher, no matter how talented, can

make up for those lost hours.

Parents who value reading are more likely to visit the library and give

books as gifts. Access to quality reading material should continue throughout

a child's school years. The NAEP 1998 Reading Report Card found that students

with higher reading scores were more likely to report four types of reading

material in their homes-encyclopedias, magazines, newspapers, and at least 25

books.

Parents cannot assume that schoolwork makes up for too much TV.

Children of all ages watch as much TV in one day as they read for fun in an

entire week. Overall, children under age 13 spend 90 minutes a day in front

of the TV-one-quarter of their free time.

Adults pass on to children their own expectations about education and

achievement, both positive and negative. Shared enthusiasm about books and

reading between a parent and child can deepen the child's interest in

learning to read. Children who learn from parents that reading is fun may be

more likely to sustain efforts to learn to read when the going gets tough.