Is your child a reader or do they read?

Recently, the My Baby Can Read DVD program was discredited as having no effect on babies or toddlers. It was actually found that parents sharing the same high frequency words with children the same age had more of an effect on a child’s learning than the DVD series. There is and has always been undisputable research behind parent involvement in education being crucial for academic achievement.

It seems poignant to ask the question: Do parents question if reading products are research based?

Reading researchers continue to report on and uphold the longstanding claims that parent involvement in reading is essential for developing children into lifelong readers and learners. Peer reviewed reading research supports that lifelong learning is contingent on parental

Young children are motivated to read and remain invested in literacy universally if the following conditions are met.

1. Children want choice and ownership of what they read.

• A beginning reader is often disinterested and unmotivated in reading due to the limited content available to beginning readers.
• Many beginning reading and true beginning learning to read books have no substance or literary elements from which children can develop their understanding of the reading process.

1. Children need to have meaningful discussions on literacy elements as beginning readers.

• They need to develop connections between what they read with their lives and experiences.
• They need to understand reading has a purpose and connecting on their level from the beginning.

1. 3. Parental support and active participation in the beginning reading process leads to higher rates of beginning reading success.

• Parents are a child’s first teacher.
• A child’s first exposure to reading and literacy is dependent on a parent.
• Children need consistent prolonged engagement with reading to gain momentum and success.

1. 4. Beginning reading programs needs to encompass predicting, discussion of content and vocabulary, and daily writing practice.

• Beginning reading programs should help children develop good reading habits.
• Beginning reading programs should provide opportunities for children to discuss and interpreting vocabulary and content within stories.
• Beginning reading programs should provide creative opportunities with daily reading to allow for personal reactions and reflections to content.
• Beginning reading programs should have daily opportunities for children to draw and write.

Beginning reading should not be pushed into reading before they are ready. Remember, the tortoise wins the race.

• Children should have a strong sense of print awareness (knowing letters make up words and spaces indicate new words) before beginning to teach a child to read.
• They should know the letters of the alphabet in random order.
• They should know the sounds letters make in random order.
• They should show signs of wanting to learn how to read such as pointing out words they know, asking what things say around them, pretend reading, and sharing with you that they want to learn to read.

We all get there. Give your child time to figure out when the time is right for them and be a part of the daily process.

Stepping Stones Together is a research based beginning reading program when your child is ready.