In the New York Times, January 8, 2015, Motoko Richjan, in “Study Finds Reading to Children of All Ages Grooms Them to Read More on Their Own,” gives us good reasons to read aloud to grandchildren of all ages.
She writes:
“Fewer children are reading books frequently for fun, according to a new report released Thursday by Scholastic, the children’s book publisher. In a 2014 survey of just over 1,000 children ages 6 to 17, only 31 percent said they read a book for fun almost daily, down from 37 percent four years ago.”
“There were some consistent patterns among the heavier readers: For the younger children – ages 6 to 11 – being read aloud to regularly and having restricted online time were correlated with frequent reading; for the older children – ages 12 to 17 – one of the largest predictors was whether they had time to read on their own during the school day.”
“The finding about reading aloud to children long after toddler hood may come as a surprise to some parents who read books to children at bedtime when they were very young but then tapered off. Last summer, the American Academy of Pediatrics announced a new policy recommending that all parents read to their children from birth.”
“A lot of parents assume that once kids begin to read independently, that now that is the best thing for them to do,” said Maggie McGuire, the vice president for a website for parents operated by Scholastic.”
“But reading aloud through elementary school seemed to be connected to a love of reading generally. According to the report, 41 percent of frequent readers ages 6 to 10 were read aloud to at home, while only 13 percent of infrequent readers were being read to.”
The entire article is lengthy and has great information.
We grandmas need to promote parents of our grandchildren to read aloud to them, and we need to read aloud to our grandchildren. Books are a great visit present. As would be expected, after age 11, being read to disappears by parents. We can still read with older grandchildren and offer to read a chapter aloud to them from their favorite chapter book. However, the article mentioned another practice we grandmas need to promote: giving children time to read independently during the school day at school. Pass the article along to see if schools might be able to find some of that time to allow our grandchildren to read for pleasure in school.
What books should we recommend or buy? Always look at the Oppenheimer Toy Awards on Toy Portfolio for book recommendations for all ages. Note the New York Times Book Review best seller list for children of all ages. Best yet, take the grandchild to the book store to pick out a book when you visit with
Joy,
Mema
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