Your Baby Can Read?

That commercial…. I’m sure you’ve seen it… Can it possibly be true?

Can a child of six months recognize words presented on flashcards? Can a child of two recite whole passages of Charlotte’s Web? Yes. And yes. The question is: are these reading? No, they’re not.

Think about it. Reading requires an ability to not only recognize words or memorize passages (in fact, memorization is not required for reading at all). Laboratory rats and maybe a border collie dog can be taught to recognize words but they’re not reading when they do it. And if you’ve ever read a book over and over (and over and over) to a toddler, you know young children memorize things easily. Real reading is much more. And real reading is not a parlor trick that can be mastered in a few weeks or months. Read reading takes years to accomplish.

And that’s where you come in. The way to help your child become a reader – and maybe even learn to read on his own, all by himself – is to making reading what your family does, right from this moment on. Reading is not something that starts in kindergarten or first grade. Reading requires years of daily conversation, daily storytelling, daily book reading, and daily playing around with letters and letter sounds. To help your child become a reader, you must be a reader yourself.

The good news here is that this costs nothing at all. Any parent can do this. Start today to talk with your child about anything and everything. Start today to point out letters and sounds and writing. Start today to making reading what your family does.

Can your baby learn to read? No. Can you kindergartener be ready to read – maybe even read on her own? Yes. Yes, indeed, if you start today.

What do you do to make reading a central part of your daily life? What did you do today?

You can view all of my past posts, slide shows and parenting resources by visiting http://www.earlylearningcommunity.org/page/tips-from-dr-patricia-nan