Sunday, July 30, 2017

Importance of Reading Aloud

My 15 year old son still wants me to read a story for him before he goes to sleep. And if I am tired and exactly not into the mood to read anything in particular for him, then he makes it a point to read aloud to me, anything maybe a funny article which would bring some smile back to my face and help me forget the stress I faced throughout the day. Though nowadays we don't very often get to enjoy this reading aloud activity much, yet we try to at least once or twice a week, depending on the amount of time we can manage to steal from our busy schedules. He needs this time as much as I do to unwind himself, as we have over the years found out that the reading aloud sessions can be much engaging. Once we start to read aloud, we make it a point to discuss about new word and theories that we come across. And over the years, I have never been ashamed to confess over to him, if I wasn't aware of the meaning of certain words or theories. It is just not necessary that a parent has to know everything, we are parents not super robots! Once we come upon some word that we don't know of, we just grab dictionary and search for the word or if it is a theory we google it. Over the years, we have discovered that the read aloud sessions we engage in also help us to forget about stressful day we faced and end up with something new in our heads which can really be de-stressing.


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Reading plays an vital role in developing a child's vocabulary and personality.  Importance of Reading could only to made aware to children by their parents. But sometimes  a child can have problem with reading and understanding words. And this is where reading aloud can really be helpful. Reading is known to improve learning skills of a child but reading aloud can help a child to build confidence and beat the problem of understanding words. With regular practice of reading aloud a child can gain confidence and be fluent in language. One of the most important parenting tip for every parent is to encourage their children to read aloud. And this has to be started right from the young age, when a child practices to read. It is said that a good habit developed at very young age sticks by for a long time and can really prove to be helpful.  Thus making a child read aloud is one of the foundation stone a parent lays as child's first step towards success.


Importance of Reading Aloud


Reading aloud helps a child in lot ways than one could imagine.And the benefits of reading aloud helps your child in long run and it has an important contribution in shaping up his personality as it enhances his language skills, listening skills and learning skills.

Reading Aloud Improves Pronunciation


A regular dose of reading aloud not only improves learning but it also helps to improve pronunciation. If reading aloud is practiced daily by a child, he easily gets hang of the words which he had problem with pronunciation at an early stage. Improvement in pronunciation in turn helps in the development of speech and also improves writing skill.

Reading Aloud Improves Listening Skills


When a child reads aloud, he gets to hear his own voice which helps him to improve his listening skills and also helps him to understand what he is reading. I a parent is reading aloud for a child, a child focuses his attention on the parent and thus his mind learns to focus well without being distracted.

Reading Aloud Improves Writing Skills


The development and improvement of a spelling totally depends upon a child's perception towards a phonic sound and this is where the habit of reading aloud comes into the picture. Reading aloud helps a child to listen to the phonic sound a word makes, to detect the phonic syllables and to visually connect the letters together to form a word. Thus the spelling awareness is boosted. This whole process in turn, helps to improve your child's writing skills.

Reading Aloud Helps to Connect with Books


Reading aloud helps a child to build a positive connection with the books. The basic things which connect a child to a book like how to choose a book, how to hold them while reading, bookmarking, connecting the pictures with the words  and taking care of books are understood by the children. This connection helps a child to explore the path which helps him or her to discover new words, new writing skills and a whole new adventure.

Reading Aloud Helps in Strong Vocabulary Building


With constant reading aloud practice, a child is exposed to new letters, words, sentences, grammatical adaptation and phonic syllables, which helps in building strong vocabulary. Introduction of new words, their meanings and synonyms adds up to his mental database or library of words. This can definitely help a child in language skills and to achieve good grades in theoretical writing.

Reading Aloud Helps a Child to Explore New Ideas


When a child gets into the habit of reading aloud a story, his brain tries to be perceptive by understanding the way a story is about to develop. A child's brain thus works it's way on how the story may end using it's imagination. This helps the child to explore new ideas, to fetch his curiosity and help the brain development by allowing it to work to fullest potential.

Reading Aloud Promotes Fluent Reading


If a child is encouraged by his parents and teachers to read aloud right from his early age, then this habit can help a child with language development and thus build a strong foundation in overall language skills. Early speech problems such as stuttering or stammering can also be resolved by the habit of reading aloud. Even if a child may start slow with the reading aloud process, constant practice would definitely help him to be a fluent reader. This fluency in reading would be developed only by regular practice and a child would achieve great results.

Reading Aloud Helps a Child to Cope with Stress


A small read aloud session before going to bed can help a child to cope up with stress and anxiety, as it completely works as a distraction from the stressful scenario and helps a child to engage in something which can make him relax and get a good sleep.

Reading Aloud - Wonderful Way of Engaging in Quality Time with Children


In today's fast paced world, parents hardly get to spend quality time with children. Hence some reading aloud session not only guarantees quality time with children but also ensures that the time spent with them is engaging and constructive. Parents also get to understand their child's weaknesses and improvement pertaining to  the language and help them develop vocabulary building. A child surely is encouraged in a positive way, if his parents actively participate and engage in the reading aloud sessions.

Top Ten Reading Aloud Tips


Here are few reading aloud tips and strategies that can help you with parenting and to get started with your child in terms of development of skills and language.

1. It is advisable to start the reading aloud sessions for a child from an early age. Start with picture books and phonic sounds. Make the child read the word and study the picture, this way he learns to develop connection with words.

2. Story telling sessions by parents for younger kids work as a foundation stone for reading aloud sessions.

3. Reading aloud practice starts with you reading aloud to your child.

4. In the early stage of reading aloud session, start with you reading a sentence aloud first and making your child repeat it after you.

5. Making use of phonic sound and phonic syllables can be really helpful for better understanding of words for a child.

6. If your child finds it difficult to read out a sentence, then reading in chorus can help him improve.

7. Once a child gets better with the reading aloud technique, challenge him with new books, which are little more complex than the previous ones.

8. Make it a point to read the story in a grammatical way, like pausing and continuing if there is a comma or a full stop. Try and show excitement on exclamations and include a sigh at sad parts of the story.

9. Reading aloud sessions should be followed by the idea of speaking aloud your ideas and opinion about the passage. It is where you discuss out on the certain idea of the passage where a child can learn in-depth new words, concepts and new theories.

10. A parent or a teacher needs to be patient with a child during a read aloud session. Sometimes a child may have doubts of his own surrounding to a particular idea or an ending of a story. He may have several questions regarding it. A parent can encourage a child to come up with his or her own version of ending. His or her efforts should be appreciated and the doubts surrounding a particular idea should be resolved. 

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