Research
has found that reading with young children and engaging them can make a
positive impact on the child’s future and their family.
Bradford Wiles is an Assistant Professor
and Extension Specialist in early childhood development at Kansas State
University. For most of his career, Wiles’ research has focused around
building resilience in vulnerable families.
His current research is focused on
emergent literacy and the effect of parents reading with their children
ages 3 to 5 years old.
“Children start learning to read long
before they can ever say words or form sentences,” said Wiles. “My focus
is on helping parents read with their children and extending what
happens when you read with them and they become engaged in the story.”
The developmental process, known as
emergent literacy, begins at birth and continues through the preschool
and kindergarten years. This time in children’s lives is critical for
learning important preliteracy skills.
Although his research mainly focuses on
3-5 year olds, Wiles encourages anyone with young children to read with
them as a family at anytime during the day, not just before going to
bed. He also believes that it is okay to read one book over and over
again, because the child can learn new things every time.
“There are always opportunities for you
both to learn,” said Wiles, “and it creates a family connection.
Learning is unbelievably powerful in early childhood development.”
It goes deeper than just reading to
them, as parents are encouraged to read with their children. Engaging
children is how they become active in the story and build literacy
skills.
“There is nothing more powerful than
your voice, your tone, and the way you say the words,” said Wiles. “When
I was a child, my dad read to me and while that was helpful and I
enjoyed it, what we are finding is that when parents read with their
children instead of to them, the children are becoming more engaged and
excited to read.”
Engaging the child means figuring out
what the child is thinking and getting them to think beyond the words
written on the page. While reading with them, anticipate what children
are thinking. Then ask questions, offer instruction, provide examples
and give them some feedback about what they are thinking.
“One of the things that I really hope
for, and have found, is that these things spill over into other areas,”
said Wiles. “So you start out reading, asking open-ended questions,
offering instruction and explaining when all of the sudden you aren’t
reading at all and they start to recognize those things they have seen
in the books. And that’s really powerful.”
Wiles explains it in a scenario where a
mother reads a book with her 4 year old about a garden. Then they go to
the supermarket and the 4 year old is pointing and saying, “look there’s
a zucchini.” The child cannot read the sign that says zucchini but
knows what that is because they read the book about gardens.
During this time called the nominal
stage, the developmental stage where children are naming things, a
child’s vocabulary can jump from a few hundred words to a few thousand
words. The more exposure they’ve had through books and print materials,
the more they can name things and understand. It’s the emergent literacy
skills that can set the stage for other elements.
The school of Family Studies and Human
Services at Kansas State University is producing lesson plans to help
families learn how to read with young children. These lesson plans are
research-based but they have been condensed into usable and applicable
lessons for families.
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