This article discusses a study which suggests that parent-child reading aloud can be beneficial to parents and the parent-child relationship. In the study, interview and observation data from 293 low-income mothers and their children was analyzed so measures of shared book reading, parental warmth, parental sensitivity, and parental stress could be created. The data had been collected when the children were ages 6 and 18 months. Since the analyzed data resulted from observation, the researchers could not claim that parent-child reading causes higher levels of parental warmth and sensitivity and lower levels of parental stress, but they did note clear relationships between those factors. While this article does not include information about whether the same positive impacts of parent-child reading aloud apply to fathers or to parents and guardians with older children, it presents important research to consider. It suggests that reading aloud to your children from as early as 6 months old can not only benefit your children, as the other resources in this guide will argue, but benefit you and your relationship with your child.
2. "Children simultaneously learn multiple dimensions of information during shared book reading" (Breitfield et al., 2021)
This article discusses a study which suggests that children can learn lots of different information from listening to a picture book. In the study, 37 mother-child pairs and 2 father-child pairs were asked to read the same picture book to their child, who was between 4.5 and 5.5 years old. Afterwards, the parents filled out a questionnaire while the children were tested to discover what they had learned from listening to the book. It was found that, when an adult reads a picture book aloud to a child, the child is able to simultaneously learn and remember new vocabulary, details from the plot, and moral lessons. The findings also suggested that children can accomplish this regardless of whether or not the adult reader is specifically focused on using the book as a teaching tool. This study is slightly limited in that the number of parent-child pairs studied was rather small, all of the pairs were monolingual English speakers, and the pairs did not include children with developmental delays or hearing or vision loss. Therefore, additional research would have to be done to see if the results could be replicated for parents and children that belong to these omitted populations. Overall, this is a helpful resource if you wish to learn more about what children learn from picture books read by their parents and guardians since the article includes both a description of the study as well as an introduction that reviews other research on the subject.
Book Heart Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay Grandfather Reading Image by Tung Lam from Pixabay
Meghan Cox Gurdon is a newspaper columnist who has been the Wall Street Journal's children's book reviewer since 2005. In this book, she discusses the history of reading aloud, the impact of the practice on various areas of children's development, and its ability to broaden and improve one's background knowledge and understanding of different cultures. She also argues that you are never too old for reading aloud. While most of the book is focused on describing the benefits of reading aloud, Gurdon also presents strategies for making read alouds a part of your daily routine and describes the true story of a family who did it themselves. Lastly, she includes some book suggestions, separating them by theme and listing the books that are mentioned throughout her book. This book is an excellent resource for those who wish to look at the practice of reading aloud and its potential benefits from multiple angles.
2. The Reading Promise: My Father and the Books We Shared by Alice Ozma
This book is a memoir from Alice Ozma, who, when she was in fourth grade, made a promise with her father that they would read aloud together every night for 100 nights in a row. This promise came to be known as "The Streak," which outgrew its original 100 nights and lasted for eight years, ending when Alice went away to college. Throughout the book, Alice Ozma reflects on her relationship with her father, the books that they enjoyed together during "The Streak," and the impact that both of those things have had on her life. She even includes a template at the back of the book for readers to create their own "reading promise." This book is a unique resource in this guide given that it is the only resource that is entirely made up of a description of one family's personal experience with reading aloud.
Gale OneFile Information Science
This database, which is free to access for Colonie Library cardholders, provides access to a large number of magazine, academic, and newspaper articles related to the fields of information science and library science.
Here are some tips for using this database to access articles related to parent-child reading aloud:
Healthy Children- Episode 19, "How Reading With Children Builds Relationships & Better Learning"
Healthy Children is a podcast for parents sponsored by the American Academy of Pediatrics. In this episode, host Dr. Edith Bracho-Sanchez is joined by pediatrician, librarian, and child health advocate Dipesh Navsaria, MPH, MSLIS, MD, FAAP, who discusses the many benefits of reading aloud to your child. While their conversation does touch upon the academic benefits of reading, stating that shared reading helps with kindergarten readiness and aspects of literacy development, emphasis is put on the importance of shared reading as a tool for improving the quality of the parent-child relationship. Some time is also spent discussing how much time should be spent on reading aloud and what books are best for children at different ages. This is an interesting resource since it reveals how reading aloud is promoted by medical professionals.
Search engines, like Google, Bing, and Yahoo, can be useful tools for finding additional resources on the subject of reading aloud to children given the vast amount of resources that they can search. That being said, be sure to evaluate the quality of the results you receive and to cross-check the information presented in one source with information from other sources to determine its accuracy level.
When using a search engine, you can create searches using keywords, Boolean operators, quotation marks, and parentheses, as described in the above box on databases. Wildcards (ex. parent*, child*) are not necessary since search engines tend to automatically search for variations of your keywords.
In this video, Rebecca Bellingham, a professor in the Literacy Specialist Program at Columbia University Teachers College, discusses why it is important for adults to continue reading to children even after they are able to read independently. She talks about how reading aloud is especially beneficial to children who have difficulty with reading or comprehension since the work of decoding words is being done by the adult. This leaves their brains free to comprehend, imagine, learn from, and connect with the story and provides children with greater access to books and stories. In addition, Bellingham states that reading aloud is a great way for adults to model both how a book should be read and the joy of reading. She also argues that, once children experience books in this way, they can become better independent readers. This video is a great resource for those who wish to understand how reading aloud with your child can help them to become more thoughtful readers and more connected to the people who read to them.
The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization consisting of 67,000 pediatricians who are committed to providing comprehensive care to children and teens of all ages and resources to parents and guardians to help them foster their children's health and well-being. Naturally, there is lots of information about the physical health of children on the organization's website, but a simple search for "reading" on the home page can help you find many articles on the importance of shared reading. These articles describe the benefits that reading aloud can have on child development and early literacy, provide helpful tips for parents and guardians on how to effectively read aloud, and communicate that it is never too early for you to start reading to your child! Some helpful features of the website include filters for different languages and categories of resources and the ability to sort results by relevance or date. Like the podcast above, this resource is a great way to understand literacy and the benefits of reading aloud through the eyes of medical professionals.
2. Reading Rockets: Reading With Your Child
Reading Rockets is "a national public media literacy initiative" that strives to promote childhood literacy by providing information and resources about how children learn to read, why some children have difficulty learning, and what adults can do to help (WETA, n.d.). The main feature of this web page is a clear list of the many benefits that children can receive from listening to an adult read aloud. Some additional features include tips and videos for parents and guardians on how to read aloud most effectively, links to web pages that can help with book selection, and links to web pages that describe how parents and guardians can create engaging read alouds for children with ADHD, children with hearing loss or deafness, and children who are on the autism spectrum. This web page is a particularly helpful resource given its clarity and the comprehensiveness of its read aloud-related information.