Talking with Children Helps Them Get Ready to Read

Last year, the Every Child Ready to Read materials for libraries were updated to focus on the 5 practices parents can do to help build early literacy skills in their children. These practices are reading, writing, singing, talking, and playing.

At my library, we’re starting to create literacy messages around these five practices. We’ll deliver these messages to the parents and caregivers attending our storytimes. As I help to develop the messages, I’m having fun doing some reading and re-reading about each of the practices. So here’s a little information about how talking with children can help get them ready to read!

This information is based, in part, on the Every Child Ready to Read toolkit, but also on the reading and learning I’ve been lucky enough to pursue over the last few years.

Build Vocabulary

The more words children hear in conversations during their early childhoods, the larger their vocabulary when they go to school. That big vocabulary helps them recognize words when they see them for the first time in print. They will understand more of what they read and be less frustrated as beginning readers.

The University of Oregon’s Center on Teaching and Learning has a good recap of some of the research on vocabulary size.

Increase Comprehension

The more books children read, and the more adults talk to children about the story, characters, and ideas in books, the more children can make connections between the books they read and their own lives. Children (like grownups) enjoy recognizing themselves in print and that pleasure motivates them to read more and discover even more connections.

Comprehension is such a critical part of successful reading. If you don’t understand what you read, you won’t be motivated to keep reading. And you certainly won’t be able to enjoy the story or use the information in the book you’re reading. The more children know about the world before they start to read, the more this background knowledge can inform their attempt to decipher what’s on the page. Parents who discuss new information about how and why and when things happen with their children are giving their children an excellent foundation they will build on every day as readers.

Reading Aloud to Build Comprehension: a long article from Reading Rockets about reading out loud and thinking out loud to build connections and understanding.

A brief statement from the Bank Street College of Education on the value of activating and acquiring background knowledge for beginning readers.

Learn about Stories

When adults tell stories to children, either familiar folktales, or family stories, it helps children learn that stories have a specific structure: they have a beginning, middle, and end, and that they have characters who take action and encounter conflict before resolving a problem. When children understand how stories work, they can carry that framework to their reading, where it can support them as they try to determine the meaning of the text.

The Role of Storytelling in Early Literacy Development: from the site Australian Storytelling.

Scroll down on this page to find the PDF called “I Wanna Be a Storyteller,” a best practice handout for parents from the Center for Early Literacy Learning.

What resources have you found that discuss how talking leads to reading?