Apr 11, 2019
Vidcast: https://youtu.be/CXEY8458XWQ
Kids whose parents read 5 books a day to them enter school with exposure to 1.4 million more words more than those children who parents did not read to them. Even reading one book a day to your child will give them almost 300,000 more words as they begin kindergarten.
This data comes from Ohio State’s Center For Early Childhood Research and Policy. With the info that board books contain about 140 words and picture books an average of 228 words, they calculated that kids never read to would be exposed to 4662 words, those read to 1-2 times a week 63,570 words, 3-5 times a week 169,520 words, one book a day 296,660 words, and 5 books a day 1,483,300 words.
The researchers emphasize that these extra words translate into faster development of better reading skills. They also add that the words in books tend to be more complex than conversational words, especially since our society’s verbal discourse has begun to deteriorate into a chain of “likes” and run-on sentences.
Reading to your kids is not only good for their vocabulary, but the mommy or daddy and me time with books drives even better parent and child bonding. By the way, a study just published from the University of Michigan concludes that reading from real books rather than from electronic devices is significantly more effective.
Jessica A. R. Logan, Laura M. Justice, Melike Yumuş, Leydi Johana Chaparro-Moreno. When Children Are Not Read to at Home. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 2019; 1 DOI: 10.1097/DBP.0000000000000657
Tiffany G. Munzer, Alison L. Miller, Heidi M. Weeks, Niko Kaciroti, Jenny Radesky. Differences in Parent-Toddler Interactions With Electronic Versus Print Books. Pediatrics, 2019; e20182012 DOI: 10.1542/peds.2018-2012
#Reading #vocabulary #parenting #education #headstart #earlychildhood