One of my readers, Heidi, made the following comment on my article entitled :- “Headmistress agrees with advice given on dyslexia”:
Heidi wrote, “I read to my son every night since he was a baby. He grew up to be a dyslexic. He is awful with punctuation, but I never have to change his grammar or sentence structure. It is always correct. He also likes to write stories (just for years they weren't spelled right). Now, I know the reading must have really helped his correct usage of word structure, and probably his love for writing stories.”
Note that she says that her dyslexic son’s grammar or sentence structure is always correct and the reason for that is that she has been reading to her son since he was a baby!
My wife and I read to our children almost every night since they were babies and all of my children have been top in their English in their school right from the beginning. All of them are avid readers. Believe me when I say that I have to forcefully stop them from reading story books a week or two before their examinations.
It is important that you read to your child from infancy. Reading will develop your child’s attention span and receptive language skills. It also helps your child to listen to correct pronunciation. Do not stop when your child can read. He would still enjoy listening to a story being read to him. It also allows him to hear stories that are beyond his current reading level.
Reading to a child makes it easier for him to develop speech, and as Heidi has pointed out, he would have a good grasp of grammar and sentence structure.
Reading to a child is a great way to prepare a pre-school child for the school environment. It helps a child to master language development, listening skills and it also increases his attention span, all of which will help in his school environment. Simply put, a child who is read to frequently will become a better reader.
My eldest son Fadhil had not started speaking any word up till about 2 years plus. My wife and I were very worried as children, of our friends, who were much younger could already speak. However, when Fadhil started speaking we were pleasantly surprised to hear him use many words that we had not spoken to him over a few weeks or months. Where did these words come from?
All the words we had read and spoken to him had been stored in his brain. When he was ready to speak they just came out with ease. I can’t think of any other explanation!
Children who are read to since babies are better prepared to learn academically than children who are not read to. So read books to your child to lay the foundation in raising a reader.
For Lesson 28 click here: