Raising kids to be readers

In a national survey of over 15 hundred parents, 71 percent of them say they wished their kids did more things that did not involve screen time, such as reading books. Reading builds vocabulary and language skills and is correlated with success in school. But with so many tantalizing tech toys out there, it may be difficult to build the love of reading in your child.

Whether it’s to a magical world, a fairy tale castle, or a galaxy that is far, far away, books help kids use their imagination to travel to places they have never seen before. But how can parents get their kids to read more?

“Parents should began reading to their children as often as possible as close to birth as possible.” says John Hutton, MD, a pediatrician at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

A report by the US department of education says children who are read to at least three times a week by a family member are almost twice as likely to score in the top 25 percent in reading compared to children who are read to less than three times a week.

Doctor Hutton continued, “The more practice children have earlier and the more those brain networks are stimulated the greater the chance of them becoming more successful readers later on.”

Don’t just stick to storybooks. Try reading cookbooks together when preparing meals. Comic books or even fun reference books like the Guinness book of world records work also. And let your kid choose what they want to read. Eighty percent of kids said the book they liked the most was the one they picked themselves. Most importantly, read yourself. If your kids see you read books, they are more likely to do so.

In a recent scholastic survey, 83 percent of kids say they loved being read aloud to and 40 percent of kids, aged six to eleven, wished their parents still read to them.
Contributors to this news report include: Milvionne Chery, Producer; Jamison Koczan, Videographer and Editor.