According to Scholastic.com, 73% of parents of children five and under have reported reading aloud to their child before their first birthday. Since there are an incredible amounts of language, literacy, and social-emotional benefits associated with reading to your child, that is an amazing statistic! Not only are they just reading aloud, they are loving it- both parents and children. 80% of families reported they love or like it a lot. Reading aloud can be a valuable time for children and parents to form strong emotional bonds. Wednesday, February 3rd marks World Read Aloud Day, and we’ve got some of the best ways you can celebrate!
Read Aloud to Your Child
Of course one of the most obvious ways to celebrate is by choosing a book from your child’s library and reading it aloud to him or her. That means at bedtime or anytime of the day! No matter your child’s age, keep in mind that there are some ways you can make this extra fun for your child. For example, change your voice as you read from different characters’ point of view. Make sound effects, like a “bzzzzz” for a bee or a “vrrooooom” for a race car! Use gestures and over-exaggerated facial expressions as you read about emotions. Not only will this make listening to stories more enjoyable for your child, it could help improve your child’s comprehension of language concepts and vocabulary. That’s a win-win!
Encourage Your Child to Read Aloud to You
School aged children can benefit from improved reading fluency by practicing reading aloud. Ask your child to grab his or her favorite books (or a few of them!) and read aloud to you or the whole family! Reading to younger siblings can be a great way to improve a child’s confidence! Even the youngest “pre-readers” can benefit from pretending to read stories as they flip the pages and look at the pictures. “Reading” aloud can help those little ones start to formulate sentences and literacy skills.
Start a Family Book Club
Each family member chooses a new book to start reading. Meet once a week to read a page aloud from your current book and discuss your thoughts on it! When children see that their parents and other household members have a love for reading and are exposed to books more, they may be likely to develop a desire to read more themselves!
Snap a pic of how your family celebrated World Read Aloud Day and tag #JoinTheStoryBox and #WorldReadAloudDay
Amy Yacoub, MS, CCC-SLP | Speech Pathologist
Proud Member of The Story Box Family
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