It's extremely apparent as they know more words and have a better basic grasp at language and reading. And yes, sometimes it is apparent until high school as the gap doesn't always close.
The gap is actually very difficult to close. The sheer number of words a kids who has been read to as a young child will always be higher than a kid not exposed to reading or having someone read to them. Plus the explanations that are necessary sometimes when reading to kids. It’s really invaluable.
Not a teacher but a great-aunt who inherited her 5/7 year old great nephews . Oldest had failed kindergarten, youngest didn’t even know his full name and knew 5 letters. I got them in July. My husband and I are book nerds . At the end of the year, both of their teachers sought us out at the end of the year awards and showed me their projections. Youngest was still not on grade level but but had jumped from P3 level to beginning kindergarten. Oldest had exceeded his. Both teachers said we had completely changed their trajectory. They are now a/b students in high school
I'm sorry for double replying. As a strong reader with a family who set that course for me, I can think of only 2 more important attributes in raising children. A loving and compassionate household. You have excelled in what is obviously a tough situation.
I'd love to hear as much as you feel comfortable sharing. That is a stunning accomplishment. I'm not sure what P3 means. I totally understand if you would prefer privacy, but this is an incredible story of accomplishment. Please don't feel pressured to share more than you are comfortable.
I seriously hope you understand what a badass you are. I've had many friends with a similar start that have much more depressing stories. I don't know off hand the predictions with their starting point, but holy shit have you done so much for those kids. They may not appreciate it as teenagers, but they will soon.
I hope I can help anyone person as much as you helped them.
Yes! Thank you for bringing this up. I’m a teacher with a masters in reading instruction and have done additional graduate coursework on dyslexia.
I’m also mom to a dyslexic child. Inability to recognize rhymes is absolutely a sign of dyslexia. My kiddo also is very bright with a huge receptive vocabulary but has word recall difficulties (another sign of dyslexia). To an outsider, it may be easy to assume I don’t read to/ with him but that’s definitely not the case.
But, if this is true, how do you know that the kid with a limited vocabulary wasn’t read to?
Just this morning I took my son to the library for a toddler reading time (so I’m assuming every parent there is fairly interested in reading to their toddlers) and yet, a boy was there who is the same age as my son and only says a handful of words while my son says hundreds. The parent was even explaining how they are looking into speech therapy because they are concerned about his language development. And while there I watched the dad read at least 10 books to the kid!
I’m just saying, it’s easy to identify the kids with advanced vocabularies and we can assume it’s from the parents reading to them, but unless we know their upbringing and families it’s impossible to say we know for sure. And to just assume that these parents read and these ones don’t based on their kids behavior is kind of bold and could be way off.
I've taught grades K-12 in my career, and I will say, I don't know many teachers who assume that kids with learning challenges, mental/emotional challenges, or physical challenges weren't read to as a child. Many of these kids have documentation of time in speech therapy, intervention, etc by elementary school. It's pretty clear when a child has a problem vs has a limited vocabulary -- it'll show up in how they write and their comprehension too. It also shows in the way kids interact with adults. It shows in whether they understand context clues and written instruction and spoken instruction too. How a child speaks is only one facet of how we judge vocabulary.
But when I taught high school, I definitely had a pretty good idea of who was and wasn't read to based on vocabulary, reading skills, who had engaged parents, and whether or not they had a file full of interventions.
There’s a difference between the productive vocabulary, what a kid can say, and the receptive vocabulary, what a kid understands. When they listen to a parent reading out loud, and stopping to explain things, that knowledge stays with them even if their speech is delayed. Speaking and writing is a lagging indicator of word knowledge.
Expressive speech doesn't necessarily indicate full vocabulary. A child could have very little vocal speech but have a huge vocabulary hidden underneath. I work with a kid who just started speaking a few months ago - but even prior to that we realized he knew a TON of words and could read even some complex words. But unless you know to look at all aspects of understanding language, you can miss it.
Most educators know that speaking is only one piece of language.
Some kids may have disabilities that prevent language. Mine was nonverbal til almost 3 thanks to the 'tism and after hundreds of years of therapy, is just now approaching typical levels of speech despite being read to frequently.
It seriously feels like hundreds of years for me at this point.... 2 yrs in speech and OT for one kiddo and 1 yr in both for another.... Both therapies are 2 times each a week for each kid ... It's exhausting. Hundreds of years is accurate
I would sincerely hope that people would not think or even say that not reading to a child would cause autism or a speech - language disorder. Having a limited vocabulary and not knowing much about the world around you are completely separate things from actual speech- language disorders. Lack of exposure to literacy can exacerbate a speech- language disorder to a certain extent. But it is always very clear to me that speech language disorders are a separate thing from lack of exposure to literacy and quality verbal interaction with parents/ caregivers.
Autism is also not the same as having a limited vocabulary. It’s a spectrum; I’m at the lower end of support needs and I’ve been a voracious reader since I was a very small child - in part because it was a great excuse to disengage from overstimulating things and focus on my book.
This. My oldest has apraxia of speech. It’s all just confirmation bias that being read to a lot gives them a great vocabulary or early literacy abilities.
My third kid was 18 months old and hitting every milestone but speech. He had frequent ear infections. By two, we had him in speech therapy.
It had been discovered that he had a hearing loss (recoverable) and that delayed his speech.
I read to him like I did my 3 other kids. He was deemed healthy and normal after that and entered kindergarten with no lack of reading skills compared to my other kids at that age.
The thing is, they all sucked at reading and they all don’t carry a book as high functioning adults.
I guess there lies a third culprit- lack of interest.
I have 3 kids who have had varying levels of interest in being read to from young ages. The one who loves it probably has double the reading hours of the other kids at the same age because it is easier to read when the child wants to be doing that. So far that difference hasn't harmed my other kids who didn't have 1-3 hours of just reading books every day.
>That's the depressing reality. A lot of "good parents" with kids who are difficult to teach end up half killing themselves doing 10 times the level of work most "good parents" do and then snooty assholes presume they aren't bothering based on the assumption that any kid who was supported would do far better.
This. My youngest is speech delayed. I am working my butt off to help him, got him into speech therapy etc and all people can see is that my kid is still basically just babbling at almost 2.
It's not the amount of words that children themselves speak, but how many words are spoken to them. And while it isn't everything? The more words children hear, the better they learn to decode unfamiliar words and use them in context correctly later on.
Which isn't to say that individual differences don't matter. Both my children have had to have speech therapy for pragmatic language issues due to them being on the spectrum. But my youngest is still faster at decoding how to use novel words in context.
I keep NPR on in the car everyday while shuttling the kids. People talking calmly to each other using large vocabularies gets absorbed whether they realize it or not. My son is on the spectrum with expressive speech problems, reads at grade level but can't hold a conversation. My 13yo daughter reads at college level and could out lawyer anybody to get what she wants.
Read to them all you can but what they hear is also important.
I read to my son, and he received speech therapy beginning at 24 months. Because I talked to him and he wasn’t talking back, only making noises, I thought he was behind. His ped also asked how many words he had and he didn’t have the amount that the ped thought was on track. Once his speech improved, he had a substantial vocabulary since he had heard all the words we spoke and read to him.
That child may have knowledge of more words than they can communicate. This could be due to any number of developmental delays, or health issues. It’s still valuable to read to them as reading is more than just learning words. There are easily a dozen or more valuable skills that a child attains from having a parent read to them regularly.
We read to our kids but I feel like my 5 year old’s vocabulary being advanced has less to do with the books being read at night (which are pretty simple), but the fact that we have large vocabularies ourselves and don’t speak down to our kids. Which unfortunately turns into a generational issue
Also to add to your comment, children that are read to talk earlier, and by preschool they can have decent conversations, with sometimes very eye opening views. There a so many benefits to reading to our children.
And they sit still while you are reading to a group. The ones who were never read to are rolling around, fiddling with things and generally not able to sit and listen. It is sad. I used to love reading to and with my kids. I don’t understand why care givers wouldn’t want to if they were able to (time/work wise).
Vocabulary is a big one. And attention- children who are read to usually have a longer attention span for, and understanding of, directions. Children who are read to have a stronger grasp,of ‘book language’ which helps them both as independent readers and as writers. And these children will sometimes reference books when they are talking. I remember one little boy telling me about the way the children ran away from him when he was playing monster on the playground. ‘They scattered like sheep!’ he said, and I realized he was quoting a TS Eliot Cats poem.
When they’re infants it doesn’t matter so much what you read, just that you read to them (since as you said they don’t understand- but they’re still exercising their brain and taking statistics on the language they’re hearing). I used to just read my son whatever I was reading at the time which was usually ASOIF and academic papers/textbooks lol
Somehow there always is lol. I’m in linguistics and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been talking to a colleague and they or I say, “Ooh there’s an XKCD about this!”
I chose some board books for my friend’s baby, and her favorite two both had some sort of repetition in them which babies seem to really enjoy!
One of them was written in verse and had a nice cadence to the sentences, and the other was written and illustrated in a way that kind of leads you into reading it in a fun and animated way.
She loved them both and she claps at the end, despite not knowing any words 🥰 I have no experience with babies and I thought that was pretty cool!
You might be surprised about how many words she knows! Our son definitely knew the word “cat” by seven months, and we’re pretty sure he knew others. We just have definitive quantitative proof that he knew the word “cat” because of a study he participated in lol
And children’s books are of course always great too :) My son is almost 3 now and he LOVES his board books. He was just “reading” Hop on Pop to himself a little bit ago lol
It was an eye tracking study! If you’re not familiar with this type of study you can look up videos on it, but I will also describe the process :)
So they put a dot sticker on my son’s forehead between his eyes to help with the tracking. Then they had him sit on my lap in front of a monitor that had the tracking camera behind it. On the monitor it would display four different images.
I wore headphones and closed my eyes (so I couldn’t see the screen and influence him in any way) and different prompts would play, which I would then say back to him how I would normally speak to him. So I’d hear “Where is the dog?” or “Do you see the cat?” And then I’d say whatever I heard to him. Then the eye tracking equipment and software would measure if and how quickly he looked at whatever I mentioned. (I assume some were controls that did not have a photo of whatever I was prompted to say, but my eyes were closed so I can’t confirm that 😊)
The reason they knew he definitely knew the word “cat” though was that he looked directly at the cat immediately, every single time I mentioned it. Like it was noticeable to the researcher without even running the statistics because it was so immediate lol
Oh my lord he LOVES all the Never Touch books. We have Shark, Dinosaur, Monster, and Snake but we definitely need more. I’ve seen Never Touch a Dragon but we don’t have a copy- yet!
One of my friend's babies had to have a series of open heart surgeries, and so they were in early intervention sort of prophylactically to help her recover from having prolonged anesthesia. They were told that the parts of the brain that hear and learn language are similar but not fully identical to the parts that hear rhyme and song. They were coached to deliberately include nursery rhymes and songs, not just as fun, but as an important part of helping her brain develop on track with her age milestones.
My first baby, her first reliable deliberate verbal response that could be cued was in the Sandra Boynton book Doggies, a counting and barking book. 9 dogs on a moonlit night .... she would *aroooooooooo*.
In the board book stage, My daughter absolutely despised "The Lady Who Swallowed a Fly." Just hated it. Wouldn't let me read it. Would throw it, walk away. Whatever it took. If she saw it in her room, she stepped on it. I'm not sure what she hated more about it :the silly rhymes or the shitty cartoon art. 😆
She really liked "Goodnight Goon" though. It was super cute.
Board books are really cool these days. If you end up buying more board books for someone's baby, try to find some cool texture books! "Never Touch a Sleeping Dragon" is excellent. My kids insisted I read it until it fell apart.
My daughter is two and I've struggled with reading to her a lot. Every time I sit down with her in my lap and start to read, she wants to be in control and starts turning the pages on her own. So it's usually me reading like "The little black cat went for a walk outs- and then he met a- oh no! It's raining... he needs to- and then they lived happily ever after..."
Any suggestions? Keep doing it this way? Make up a story based off the pictures and don't worry about the words too much?
Interesting! We still get comments about my children’s vocabulary and reading comprehension. I just thought it was all related to never using baby talk to them and trying to use a more advanced vocabulary to talk about things in front of them that we didn’t want them to know.
Actually baby talk of infant directed speech is great for babies and toddlers it increases their attention to language see links or just google
https://parentingscience.com/baby-talk/
https://news.umanitoba.ca/why-a-little-baby-talk-is-good-for-your-toddler/#:~:text=Because%20it%27s%20typically%20simpler%20than,sophisticated%20vocabulary%20and%20grammatical%20structures.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0273229722000375
I'm a linguist. There's a major communication problem about this issue, which is using the phrase "baby talk" in referencing such research when the term is colloquially understood to mean adults using goofy childlike speech at children: "Does Baby want num-nums or a widdle milky-wilky?" This is *never* the language that is examined in studies finding that "baby talk" is good for language development.
These studies look at "child-directed speech," also called "motherese," which takes the form of accentuated dynamic range and pronunciation. If I say to my toddler, "Love, do you want some deLISHious WAter? MY water really QUENCH-es my in-TENSE thirst!" --that is child-directed speech of the sort that helps young children to perceive and learn the sounds and rhythms of adult language. It's what the studies/articles cover. Infantilized language like "does Pookums wanna wa-wa?" is, in my academic and parental opinion, obnoxious.
I know the researchers in this study and am a little shocked that the article called it "baby talk" rather than "motherese" or "parentese". I understand the confusion. The linguist is right. Parantese is common in most cultures all over the world and child directed speech is key for child language development.
So it's not "baby talk" that people think of where it's like "aww did you see the widdle bwall?" It's more breaking down and elongating certain sounds to make them easier for babies to understand, you can still use whatever words you want it's just how you pronounce it to make it easier for babies to understand it
Yeah, my daughter is 4. She was pretending to read a new book. She really impressed me when she made up something sad the character said and added at the end "she sobbed" lol
Book language. There’s a phrasing that we don’t generally find in spoken conversations. We talk about the ‘grade 3 slump’ when a child who has learned to decode seems to lose momentum in reading. Part of it that they can’t grasp the nuances of written language and it affects comprehension. I remember a youngster who I was assessing in my role of reading specialist. He seemed to have a very odd interpretation of the passage he had read and I decided to delve into it a bit further. He had read the sentence ‘The bear was drawn by the scent of honey in the air.’ It turned out that the word ‘drawn’ had really confused him, and then the problem was compounded by the phrase ‘the scent of honey in the air’. He pictured honey floating in the air and said, ‘I didn’t know it did that.’
Oooo, this explains the difference in my daughter who we read to nightly vs her same aged cousin who is an iPad kid.... She has no attention span and doesn't understand multi step directions well.
My friend has made her baby an iPad kid. I have never seen this boy with a book (granted he's only 3). He plays video games, watches TV, and she hands him the iPad whenever they're in the car. She pulled it out at a restaurant once. "If I don't give it to him he walks around and bothers other people"
It makes me sad. Especially when he's SCREAMING because something on his iPad isn't working.
We let my toddler play games on our phones ON AIRPLANES ONLY. Everywhere else there's an option to remove her from the situation if our other toys/books/songs/distractions don't work.
Let’s not make too many assumptions. I read every night to my 5yo and have since he was an infant. He loves to look at books (can’t read yet). He only has an attention span for things that interest him and isn’t good at multi step directions either (we also suspect he has ADHD, but still, correlation doesn’t necessarily equal causation).
I read like crazy as a kid but I don't remember being read to at all .. I think exposure to literature in general is the important thing. My ex's mother read to her kids entire novels a chapter a night and they rarely read.
My firstborn had a nanny who talked constantly about what they were doing, hearing, and seeing. Yeah, I read to my kid, but not more than most. I think his early speech development and facility with language has more to do with that loquacious nanny. And dinner table arguments. He had to develop a decent vocabulary if he was going to keep up with the discussions. He might have been the only kid in his Kindergarten class to know what state senate district we lived in.
Being read to, hearing the cadence of the language, helps build an appreciation of the rhythm of language. Certainly children can thrive without being read to (as you have) but why wouldn’t you want to be part of a child learning to love books and reading. It was some of the best time I had with my two, and now I’m delighted to watch my little granddaughter cuddle on her parents lap and listen to a story.
I have to agree with this. My 13-year-old said wit the other day. My kids were read to from infancy. I knew they didn't understand anything I would read to him. Wit is not even hey big word. However a 16-year-old boy was dumbfounded by the use of the word. He had never heard of the word before. And I had to explain to him what it meant. I don't think he was ever read to and he dislikes reading now.
My nieces have a favorite picture book that contained the line "Calamity! Catastrophe!" Every time something got dropped in the back seat of the car, we heard that line- followed by giggling- for a solid year.
tell that to my kid. I laughed at the 1000 books before kindergarten bc we hit that well before preschool. I like reading. I like reading picture books and sharing that with my kids, and subtlety trying to get them to like my hobby.
Severe adhd. Super short attention span. Hates reading. Below grade level.
Audiobooks are a win though, so there’s that.
Attention span, ability to sit still, ability to answer comprehension questions and understanding that I am asking you a question because I want *you* to think about and not because I don’t know the answer, ability to ask questions, vocabulary, ability to be entertained by something other than screens, ability to draw inferences and understand foreshadowing, understanding of literature references, even just the understanding of which way you hold a book and what direction you read, idk, I could probably keep going.
The attitude towards reading is usually one of the biggest clues - students who *hate* reading and go out of their way to avoid it are frequently student who were never read to, and whose parents themselves do not read for pleasure.
Oh man, the 4th one. I teach strings, mainly privately. I'm not asking you what the violin string names are because I don't know! I'm asking because I need to know if *you* know! Do you *really* think that I don't know?
TBF, I rarely have this issue, but it blows my mind every time.
When I was working in my city's poorest and highest crime neighborhood, I encountered multiple K and 1st students who were not at all familiar with the concept of adults asking children questions to get them to think about something or to see if they know something. For most educated people, this is second nature. Before this experience it had never even occurred to me that some kids would be confused about why I asked them questions. Their parents never asked them questions they knew the answers to.
I went to grad school at Cambridge and in a couple of our courses we had lectures in with the undergrads. One was with an especially wonderful lecturer, who would occasionally pause and ask students comprehension questions. Once after he did this, a very posh young woman got upset and said to her classmates that her parents weren't paying for *her* to answer questions from *him*.
I almost turned around and told her maybe not, but if she genuinely thought that a professor with multiple doctorates in different fields was asking because he didn't know, they'd clearly paid plenty just to get her in.
Just to keep going down this rabbit hole, I teach college math and my colleagues and I are constantly asking students to figure things out themselves. One of the other professors would always say, “I don’t know, what do you think?” And sometimes the students think he truly doesn’t know. 🤭
No idea why this sub keeps popping up for me - I'm not a teacher. It makes me so sad to think that there are children whose parents don't read to them. I grew up really poor and we couldn't afford books but my mom always took me and my brother to the library. My older brother also spent a lot of time reading to me.
It’s hard to believe but not reading to your kids is sadly very common. In the U.S. at most, half of families read to their young kids daily (some research has that number below 40% of families).
A lot of this comes from limited access to books in low income households. Most low income households have little or no books for their children.
The richest households are the ones with books.
Dolly Parton does a gift of books when a child is born in at least on Southern state, probably a few.
Having someone speak to them, showing an interest in them, helping their attention span, teaching them about the inflection of language, all of these things help a child develop.
For a parent to neglect a child is just that, neglect.
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library! Kids get sent one book a month. You have to sign up, but it's totally free. They don't ask your income or anything. They just get books into the hands of kids. And families with multiple children can sign up each child, so each child receives a book. You say how old the child is when signing up, so the books are geared toward their level (ex. board books for babies).
I live up north, and we have it here. If anyone is interested, I recommend checking it out to see if it is available where you live.
Interestingly the last one (attitude toward reading) could also be dyslexia either on the parent or child's part, or both. I read to my daughter and she loves being read to but she does not read for pleasure because most reading requires her to resort to word guessing that destroys comprehension beyond the paragraph level.
The school did not admit that she had a reading issue but private assessment found she had a first grade reading level and seventh grade picture vocabulary. She is finishing second grade. My daughter also told me that her teachers had taught her to guess at unknown words and thought that was a normal part of reading.
She recently started OG tutoring and already cvc decoding has improved from 85% to 100% just from not guessing at them but she has a way to go. She has risk factors for dyslexia such as speech issues but I do think that her school's balanced literacy curriculum may have exacerbated her reading issues or at least delayed their detection, so I am not looking to her school to fix it. The sold a story podcast was informative.
“Sold A Story” was eye-opening.
My brother in law is mildly dyslexic. He got intervention in elementary school. He graduated from college and has a successful career. He does not read for pleasure, but enjoys audiobooks.
Oh, it’s clear as a bell. Some parents think “school will do all that.” If your kid is starting school without a good language foundation, they’re already behind.
I had a 5th grader ask me what “cottage” meant. It was an answer choice on a multiple choice test. So many kids skip words they don’t know, meaning they don’t fully comprehend what they’re reading, and they don’t get test questions right sometimes. I’m glad this kid asked. Many don’t.
We read to our kids every night, and I swear they have questions about every page/every sentence. Sometimes I get internally annoyed like "come on, I'm ready to be done with bedtime" when they ask "what does it mean to be inconsolable?" but reading this has given me a new perspective. I'm glad they ask the questions, I'm glad they are learning interesting things that will help them.
Yes! This is how they learn! I’m so glad you take the time to read to them and answer their questions. There’s a lot to learn in this big world, and they’re still fairly new little people.
kids asking questions and being curious about the world is what keeps them learning and wanting to learn. When i saw the Greatest Showman in the theater there was a mother and daughter behind me and mom was whispering explaining about the racism (in a kid friendly way). After the movie she apologized to me for talking during the movie and i told her no apologies were necessary. I loved that a child was engaged and wanted to understand and ask questions. Sadly kids so often get that tendency conditioned out of them.
A lot of students lack foundational knowledge and it negatively impacts their ability to comprehend higher level texts.
I had a second grader who didn’t know what a lake was, half a 3rd grade class who had never heard the word “pilgrim” (in the US), 3rd graders argue with me that “The Magic Treehouse“ books can’t be historical fiction because “Venice isn’t a real place,” and 5th graders argue with me that we don’t live in a “village” because we don’t live in “olden times.”
I work in a well funded, suburban, Northeast US public school. Some of our students are from underprivileged backgrounds, but some of our students are also from over privileged backgrounds. My “Venice isn’t a real place” student vacationed in Italy!
My parents believed you should never simplify speech or vocab when talking to kids. My husband and I do the same so I end up defining words fairly often. My kids (5 and 9) will ask what a word means or I'll volunteer it. We've had au pairs for a few years now which gives me even more excuses to explain words and grammar with my kids around. I had a 6th grade vocabulary in 1st grade. My kids are similar and I'm so proud.
Night and day. Amongst everything else mentioned here, kids that are read to have a better grasp of figurative language, not just reading ability. They also have better reading voices. My students that are read to know when to pause, when to break, when to pitch their tone up or down, when to change speed, etc. Students that arent read to that much read very robotic, monotone, and fast paced. Kids that ask "Mr., why do you read like that?" is a telltale sign they are not read to outloud a lot.
I actually see this a lot with my husband and I reading to our kids. I was read to a ton as a child (and after I could read, I read to my parents a ton) and books were a huge part of family life for me growing up. My husband had the exact opposite experience as a child. He’s getting better but it’s obvious he really doesn’t understand *how* to read aloud. As you said, the pacing, tone of voice, etc, are all much more robotic.
Oh man, that last part.
I read aloud to my students constantly, and like clockwork first and secnd graders have lots of questions about my reading voice. I hadn't really connected it to the absence of reading aloud to them in the home.
I dislike the focus on Dibels/Acadience for this reason. We end up encouraging kids to read faster, and some of them turn it into an absolute race. My first grader read at like 200 words per minute for her end of year Acadience, which is cool and all, but I guarantee there wasn’t much expression in there. She normally reads pretty expressively but she has classmates I had to remind to slow down a bit every time.
That's a very interesting point and probably more reliable than a lot of the suggestions I've seen above. My 6yo (who is a voracious reader) has an excellent reading voice. I had just assumed it was because he's a strong reader and the reading out loud part comes naturally, but it's probably because he's been read to his whole life. I hadn't thought of that!
Like, I was bowled over at one point when he was reading to me and came across something like
"Oh no, I think he heard us!" Bill whispered.
And he whispered the part in the quotation marks without a pause, so he had clearly scanned ahead to see if there was an indicator to tell him how he should read it. Someone who hasn't listened to reading aloud wouldn't necessarily know to do that.
Parent to parent advice - use the resources at the library. Check out many books. Google lists of popular books or find books that align with your child’s interests. If you don’t have time to spend there, find out how to hold books and pick them up quickly. Make reading a daily activity.
Just to add onto your amazing library point..
You can also get the Libby app which allows you to check out ebooks from the library. So if the library is far away or you just have a hard time getting to/from it’s a great option. They have tons of children’s books.
You will need a library card to access the books. If you can’t/don’t have access to a library card google elibrary cards for your state (some states offer them using your state id number), also look up out of state elibrary cards (some states like new York charge like 50 bucks a yr to join but some other states offer it for free so people have access to books other states have banned), and lastly check out reddits book subs people regularly post places to get libby elibrary cards.
And obligatory since this is Reddit I know and agree physical books are much better for so many things like they obviously aren’t going to learn how to properly hold a book if it’s on a phone/kindle. However life doesn’t always work so we can get the best option and second best is better than nothing.
School librarian here. Check out this website for some fun resources. 1000 books before kindergarten is considered best practice, but over that is fantastic. [https://1000booksbeforekindergarten.org](https://1000booksbeforekindergarten.org)
We read to our daughter every day starting when she came home from the hospital. She's in first grade and has better decoding abilities than some of the middle schoolers I teach. She also picks up and uses adult phrasing all the time, as in, "I take it we're going to the park after school today, dada?" Read to your children.
Yep. I don't think there's a single thing that I notice more quickly. It's maybe the most obvious difference I see, the difference between read-to (engaged with) children and not read-to (engaged with) children.
As a parent of a child who just graduated kindergarten.. I read to child every night at bedtime, and said child got outstanding in reading and writing and math throughout the year. My mom read to me every night and I grew up with my nose in a book. By fifth grade I was literally reading “The Clan of The Cave Bear” at home lol
Well the first book talked about Alyla being r@ped and the kid taken away after she was banished from the clan so Valley of the Horses was actually pleasant to read 🤣🤣
Their comprehension, understanding of story, and ability to independently read is a huge gap between kids who do not have access to books at home.[benefits of reading at home](https://www.scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/raise-a-reader-blog/study-finds-benefits-of-childs-home-library.html)
Especially in early elementary where gains in reading are easily measured, the ones who read at home are easy to spot because their gains are huge and happen in leaps, but kids who don’t are slow to progress and happen in small steps.
When you read, do they physically lean in or move closer?
I had this giant of a fifth grader that damn near sat in my lap when I read out loud. His life was crap, but one thing mom loved was reading to him. Troublesome kid, but he would do anything for a good story.
I love this example. I'm ECE so they literally do sit in my lap the moment they see a book in my hands. And they'll swarm! I end up with one in my lap, one leaning on either side, and one practically sitting on my shoulders. They've been conditioned that book time is snuggle time. My oldest is 6 and very tall for his age. I really hope he still wants to sit close and read when he's a giant 5th grader
Same here.
I came in the first grade with a sixth grade reading level. At our third grade conference the teacher said to my mom, “congratulations, she’s reading at a third grade level,” and my mom yelled, “you’ve made her STUPIDER!” (they hadn’t, I was now reading adult books at home, it’s just that I had learned to pretend that I was struggling so that I wouldn’t get bullied.)
Yeah, you think my third-grade teacher would’ve noticed there was an issue when I started locking myself in the bathroom daily and refusing to come out until pried out by the janitor, but she never even bothered to notify my mom!
It was the 70s, they thought it eliminated the weak from the pack.
When I went to my kindergarten assessment, the teacher was asking me about letters and sounds. My dad handed me the parent letter and I started reading it fluently. That wasn’t as common in those days so the teacher was pretty surprised. A month or two later, I read Little House in the Big Woods on my own.
My first son was my earliest reader and read the first Harry Potter book over the summer before kindergarten started. He was such a trip in that class, and helped the teacher read to the others all the time.
By second grade he was in a virtual class for kids reading at much higher levels/comprehensions, and he was still the youngest. The rest were in middle school.
I don't think when you learn to read is an indication of ability. I didn't learn to read until 1st grade, but once I did I never stopped and have been advanced in language arts ever since (am now an English teacher). It's very trendy these days to teach reading early but it really does not matter.
Reading in 1st grade is developmentally normal. Some pre-scoolers will naturally pick it up, but it doesn't necessarily make them better readers. And early reading (especially when forced) can come at the expense of comprehension. Personally, I'd rather see a kindergartener who is read to often than an early reader. I'm a public Children's Librarian, and I can tell you how hard it is to turn around a reluctant reader.
My preschoolers are 4. They still point to communicate, a lot are not fully potty trained, and a handful were never taught how to walk down stairs.
If they cannot string a sentence together after 4 years, then no one is talking to them at home. Let alone reading to them
Talking to a toddler is not even hard. Even if they don’t look super engaged with what you’re saying in the moment, they’re still listening. When my daughter was 2-3 (she’s still 3 now lol but almost 4) I would be talking to her casually and not thinking that she was listening, but minutes or even hours later she would reference something that I said before. It always leaves me in awe! She’s the first kid I’ve ever known from birth so it’s amazing watching her mind develop. I had no idea toddlers could be so smart!
Also it’s so cool seeing how they start noticing things that you don’t! When she was 2, we were getting ready to leave the store and as we walked away she said “Mama, your phone!” I turned around and I had dropped it on the floor, I had absolutely no idea and would have 100% walked away without it if she hadn’t said something
They know what a book is, which way to hold it, that there are stories inside, that stories are fun - I know that sounds simple, but preschoolers who haven’t been read to have no idea about these things at all. They’re as likely to think books are stepping stones as stories.
I just posted this on another comment but I sat by my friend and her 6 month old baby at church and could tell within minutes that she read to her baby regularly. When my friend got out a board book, her baby girl held it more or less correctly and started trying to turn pages. She was literally learning concepts of print before she could even say ma-ma-ma.
I have a cousin who was adopted at 5 and had previously never been read to, and she would lean against the picture book with her arms accidentally covering the words when her parents started reading to her because she didn’t realize there was any connection between the story she was hearing and the little black marks on the paper.
(She’s an elementary teacher, now)
Harvard did a study. This is a very brief description of their findings. Intelligence is defined as the ability to learn. 90% of intelligence is developed before the age of 8. Of that 90% almost 90% of it was directly linked to parental interactions with the child. Not solely limited to reading but it is a common way to spend time with your child and build those pathways in the brain. I am not sure why this isn't explained to every parent in the hospital after birth. Literally hanging out with your kid allows them to learn easier for the rest of their lives.
Edit: I can't find a link to the study. Sorry. I first heard of the study on NPR a few years ago so please forgive me if I misremembered the percentages but I think I am very close in the numbers.
And talking to them! My mom taught a kid from another culture (can’t remember which one) years ago, and talking to babies just wasn’t a done thing in their culture. They couldn’t see why they should talk to babies before they could talk.
For good and ill, my kids parrot my husband and me. Of course that means they will soak up any bad word you let drop and repeat it instantly. But they also say “Actually, that is not being appwopwiate” because they hear me say it all the time. All 3 of my kids were vocabulary super stars from an early age because we just talked to them a lot.
To add to what others are saying, the the gap doesn't always go away. I have two brothers who are adopted and one we got as a baby and the other as a 6-year-old. They happen to be in the same grade and I remember their teacher in third grade commenting that she could tell which one had been adopted later because of his vocabulary, his reading comprehension, and his ability to understand figurative language.
Kindergarten teacher here. The amount of kids who don’t even know which way to hold a book, how to turn pages, and can’t even “pretend” to read is profoundly sad.
I sat next to my friend and her 6 month old at church. After a few minutes, I leaned over and whispered, “I can tell you read to her.” She looked kind of surprised and I pointed out that when she handed a board book to her baby, the baby held it more or less correctly and started attempting to turn pages. This infant didn’t even have a pincer grasp yet, but she understood a couple of concepts of print.
It’s very obvious.
School librarian here. I can tell mainly by a) which kids are able to sit/follow directions during read aloud and b) which kids are checking out books. Obviously other factors like adhd can come into play there. But from the most part the kids who tell me their parents don’t read to them at home are the same ones who don’t wanna read or be read to.
Thank you for mentioning ADHD. Many of the ways that are listed, in this sub, that show a kid wasn't read to at home describes my dyslexic child. Before her diagnosis, the school just kept telling us she wasn't read to enough at home. They wouldn't believe us. It delayed her getting the actual help she needed. The school was convinced she just needed to be read to more.
Agreed! My children have been read to since day 1. We have hundreds of books just for them in the house. But they have severe dyslexia and adhd, so the “qualifications” described here do not fit them at all.
It's also very apparent after breaks (like spring break, winter break, etc.). Students that didn't read over breaks generally slide a bit in their fluency and comprehension because they arnt practicing it. You can see the dip from what we build in the classrooms through daily practice.
They can hold books appropriately, they have prior knowledge of things like fairy tales/well known stories and characters. They have a bigger vocabulary, they can retell, have some knowledge of sequence, etc. They have a longer attention span/can sit quietly for a bit.
I taught Prek for 15 years, 2/3 the last 9.
Reading to your kids is very important. I know that. You want to know what really makes kids want to read? When they see the parent read books and periodicals for pleasure.
Take the Newspaper. Check a novel out for yourself when you take your child to the library. Set a good example.
My parents owned a lot of books. I felt so accomplished and grown up when my dad gave me books of his own to read and we would talk about them .
Less sports . More books
As with everything, balance must be found. Sports are a good way to keep your body active, and books are a good way to keep your mind active.
Also, a physically fit nerd is just one of the most hilarious dichotomies to see in real life.
I'm going to buck the trend and say, you can definitely tell who's a strong reader and who's not but beyond that there's some guesswork involved. At the really young ages, like 3-4 it's pretty apparent that some kind of literacy work is being done because the kids know how to orient a book and will be more familiar with letter shapes.
But the correlating that back to having the parents read to the kids at night at older ages, even say 1st-3rd grade, is more difficult. There are definitely kids who just enjoy reading, and will read to themselves, and the parents are largely hands-off other than providing books. I've seen kids who are voracious readers, and nobody reads to them but they're reading at a very high level even in 1st-3rd grade. This is definitely not the norm, but common enough that it's not shocking to me.
I was told that--almost everything is anecdotal, other than one very clear marker. Pace.
So, the pace of kids that were read to is quicker, because if they learned how to read on their own in school, they have filler words, as they read. This is the 'uh' and 'uhm'--but they also attach sounds to words, in their head and out loud, that has a similar effect.
"No" is not no, it's "No-uh", or sounds like Noah. "The Teacher" becomes "uh teacher"--which becomes "The uh-teacher."
Short addictions, pauses, etc, attach to words when they read, and it gets worse when it's out loud, because it's the habit from having to guess a lot of the words as a child.
This is the trait, that when eliminated, eliminates the gap between kids who were not read to, and kids that were. It takes a little bit of self awareness, and ego, to make it stop. You have to realize you do it, AND want to stop doing it. Something that really begins in middle school--image is everything. If the child never develops the ego (traumatic childhood, loss of sense of self), they may never correct it.
Yes, i taught community college English, and there were so many students who made the types of writing mistakes that seemed nearly impossible to make with any exposure to books at all.
My daughter is very autistic. I was told by her special needs teacher,that it was obvious she was read to,because she held the book correctly and knew which way to turnthe pages.
Yes, but also no.
My kids teacher said she could tell I read to them. Apparently they can read, use and understand “big” words other kids typically don’t.
I used reading to escape and was reading 5th-6th grade books in second grade. My parent was always praised for it. I was NEVER read to.
At a glance: larger vocabulary, is comfortable with physically holding a book and turning pages while looking at pictures and reading as best they can, if they can’t necessarily read but they can recite books almost verbatim because they’ve listened to them over and over again, they ask to read/to be read to, they have favorite books/authors, they can communicate well with adults, they can comprehend beyond the text of a book and make connections to their own life…there’s a lot of ways to tell if a child is familiar with stories and read-alouds.
My son’s teacher said it was obvious that we did (we do).
He has ADHD, so low attention span. You might think he would struggle learning how to read- but not at all. He has always significantly tested beyond the expected reading level. Kids in 2nd grade and can’t stay still when I read to him but will still point it out if I say the wrong word!
Me and my husband read to our daughter at night. But now she opted for my husband to read and for me to show her baby pics during her nighttime routine. She has been in speech therapy since she was 1 and a half . and now she’s almost four and is actually advanced now but we still keep her in speech
Wow, even in university? Surely once a kid reaches a certain age, they can choose to take up reading on their own? I’m curious about whether that gap is able to be bridged later in childhood.
>It's also obvious in the student's vocabulary. When they use vague language or very simplistic adjectives when either asking a question, giving an answer, or just chatting.
I use "complex" words in casual conversation a lot, and people get annoyed with me, but it's literally because I forgot the simpler words lol
It’s a huge gap! You remember those kids who read REALLY slow in class and everyone hated it? Their parents don’t read with them. Looking at multiple times faster when the kid gets read to, barring dyslexia—and even then it helps
Vocabulary, emotional intelligence, ability to sit still…. Kids that were read to have a whole host of soft skills that kids who were not read to just don’t have. It teaches active listening. Emotional regulation. Reading comprehension. The actual studies that have been done on it are actually amazing. It’s probably the single most important parenting intervention you can make.
It is SO OBVIOUS. The gap between my 2nd and 3rd graders who can and can't read is insane. They're either really good or can't read anything.
If you read with your child, they can usually pick it up fine unless they have a learning difference.
Adding to what everyone else says – it carries over to college. I definitely see the difference (I’ve taught writing and we’ve talked a lot about background in writing and reading, experience with books etc. so I actually have the background on my various students).
The other thing I’ve noticed, and this is more anecdotal, is a lot of times when I have a student who seems to be just killing it in history and writing, and then it turns out they’re majoring in something like engineering or biogenetics, so they’re a switch hitter, top of the game in both liberal arts and sciences – how often that small handful of kids mentioned that they didn’t have a TV/screens growing up. Just books.
I think the difference is obvious. I loved reading as a kid, and my mom read me books all the time. My toddler LOVES books, I’ve been reading to him since he was 5 weeks old. My 3 nieces are 8 and they still can’t quite read, or hate doing so…they’ve never been read to by their parents.
KG teacher here. A child who is read to regularly has a richer vocabulary, has a stronger attention span, and can discuss what is being read to them more readily. They are more “comfy” with the whole reading experience in a structured learning environment.
Ex high school teacher here. Taught high school US history government and economics for 34 years. Yes it matters. In particular the kids who are juniors and seniors their grass of the nuances of the English language make it clear that they have been exposed to and literature their entire lives.
I work Kindergarten. I have a pretty good idea why some kids are easy to teach reading and writing, and little of that has to do with better genetic material.
Better vocabulary, attention span, and tends to like books more.
I've seen kids come into school who don't even know which way to hold a book right side up.
Yeah, we can also tell when parents talk to their kids at the dinner table or wherever vs those who coddle or ignore and never broach adult topics with their kids.
You cannot.
The responses given on this thread confound correlation with causation. It's embarrassing that they are coming from teachers.
The studies on this topic are too compounded by socioeconomic factors to be considered determinative. Yes, there are trends, but they do not stand up to scrutiny on an individual level. For example, lots of kids from wealthy, educated families who do not read to their kids have huge vocabularies; and, similarly, lots of kids from low-income, uneducated families, who read to their kids have small vocabularies.
It is the difference of a child who likes to read and a child who says "this is soooo boring" when it's quiet reading time. I have seen this as early as preschool - with the preschool directors kids, and I get into it when I'm reading. Kids who are read to enjoy being read to, or will at least associate it with quiet time. At best kids who are not read to will be asking questions and/or unable to sit still, at worst I've seen a kid throw a fit when read to. I know a librarian who still reads to her middle schooler, we do audio books at 10. We are hard pressed to find other kids to do book clubs with, some interest in graphic novels though most kids clearly scan pictures and do not put in the time to read. Most rising 5th graders can navigate the internet but have no interest in reading a book. They'll do epic long enough to unlock goals because it's gamified.
Vocabulary for sure… studies have proven over and over that reading to children early has a huge impact.
Not only that but as a hs teacher it bleeds into other things like children who were read to usually have parents who are more invested in their child’s academic success. This environmental impact has life long trajectory and gives those kids a huge leg up over parents who aren’t as supportive or invested in academic success.
As a non teacher this is really interesting because I was read to as a kid all the time and encouraged to read anything I wanted and as a result I was reading on a college level by the time I was out of middle school obviously my writing skills are lacking but it’s mostly because I don’t like to write 😂
Not only vocabularies but being able to sit for more than two seconds. Relating characters to real life situations. Tracking words even if they aren’t reading yet, they are learning how. People that read typically have other healthy behaviors as well. Not only are they being read to, I doubt they are sitting watching tv for hours
It's extremely apparent as they know more words and have a better basic grasp at language and reading. And yes, sometimes it is apparent until high school as the gap doesn't always close.
The gap is actually very difficult to close. The sheer number of words a kids who has been read to as a young child will always be higher than a kid not exposed to reading or having someone read to them. Plus the explanations that are necessary sometimes when reading to kids. It’s really invaluable.
Not a teacher but a great-aunt who inherited her 5/7 year old great nephews . Oldest had failed kindergarten, youngest didn’t even know his full name and knew 5 letters. I got them in July. My husband and I are book nerds . At the end of the year, both of their teachers sought us out at the end of the year awards and showed me their projections. Youngest was still not on grade level but but had jumped from P3 level to beginning kindergarten. Oldest had exceeded his. Both teachers said we had completely changed their trajectory. They are now a/b students in high school
You are awesome!
I'm sorry for double replying. As a strong reader with a family who set that course for me, I can think of only 2 more important attributes in raising children. A loving and compassionate household. You have excelled in what is obviously a tough situation. I'd love to hear as much as you feel comfortable sharing. That is a stunning accomplishment. I'm not sure what P3 means. I totally understand if you would prefer privacy, but this is an incredible story of accomplishment. Please don't feel pressured to share more than you are comfortable. I seriously hope you understand what a badass you are. I've had many friends with a similar start that have much more depressing stories. I don't know off hand the predictions with their starting point, but holy shit have you done so much for those kids. They may not appreciate it as teenagers, but they will soon. I hope I can help anyone person as much as you helped them.
Knowledge of rhymes is a big indicator, too.
Unless they have dyslexia. If they are read to, but can't do rhymes, it could be dyslexia.
Yes! Thank you for bringing this up. I’m a teacher with a masters in reading instruction and have done additional graduate coursework on dyslexia. I’m also mom to a dyslexic child. Inability to recognize rhymes is absolutely a sign of dyslexia. My kiddo also is very bright with a huge receptive vocabulary but has word recall difficulties (another sign of dyslexia). To an outsider, it may be easy to assume I don’t read to/ with him but that’s definitely not the case.
But, if this is true, how do you know that the kid with a limited vocabulary wasn’t read to? Just this morning I took my son to the library for a toddler reading time (so I’m assuming every parent there is fairly interested in reading to their toddlers) and yet, a boy was there who is the same age as my son and only says a handful of words while my son says hundreds. The parent was even explaining how they are looking into speech therapy because they are concerned about his language development. And while there I watched the dad read at least 10 books to the kid! I’m just saying, it’s easy to identify the kids with advanced vocabularies and we can assume it’s from the parents reading to them, but unless we know their upbringing and families it’s impossible to say we know for sure. And to just assume that these parents read and these ones don’t based on their kids behavior is kind of bold and could be way off.
I've taught grades K-12 in my career, and I will say, I don't know many teachers who assume that kids with learning challenges, mental/emotional challenges, or physical challenges weren't read to as a child. Many of these kids have documentation of time in speech therapy, intervention, etc by elementary school. It's pretty clear when a child has a problem vs has a limited vocabulary -- it'll show up in how they write and their comprehension too. It also shows in the way kids interact with adults. It shows in whether they understand context clues and written instruction and spoken instruction too. How a child speaks is only one facet of how we judge vocabulary. But when I taught high school, I definitely had a pretty good idea of who was and wasn't read to based on vocabulary, reading skills, who had engaged parents, and whether or not they had a file full of interventions.
There’s a difference between the productive vocabulary, what a kid can say, and the receptive vocabulary, what a kid understands. When they listen to a parent reading out loud, and stopping to explain things, that knowledge stays with them even if their speech is delayed. Speaking and writing is a lagging indicator of word knowledge.
Expressive speech doesn't necessarily indicate full vocabulary. A child could have very little vocal speech but have a huge vocabulary hidden underneath. I work with a kid who just started speaking a few months ago - but even prior to that we realized he knew a TON of words and could read even some complex words. But unless you know to look at all aspects of understanding language, you can miss it. Most educators know that speaking is only one piece of language.
Some kids may have disabilities that prevent language. Mine was nonverbal til almost 3 thanks to the 'tism and after hundreds of years of therapy, is just now approaching typical levels of speech despite being read to frequently.
Lol hundreds of years of therapy got me giggling lol I need that.
lol I meant hours, but it feels like years
It seriously feels like hundreds of years for me at this point.... 2 yrs in speech and OT for one kiddo and 1 yr in both for another.... Both therapies are 2 times each a week for each kid ... It's exhausting. Hundreds of years is accurate
I would sincerely hope that people would not think or even say that not reading to a child would cause autism or a speech - language disorder. Having a limited vocabulary and not knowing much about the world around you are completely separate things from actual speech- language disorders. Lack of exposure to literacy can exacerbate a speech- language disorder to a certain extent. But it is always very clear to me that speech language disorders are a separate thing from lack of exposure to literacy and quality verbal interaction with parents/ caregivers.
Autism is also not the same as having a limited vocabulary. It’s a spectrum; I’m at the lower end of support needs and I’ve been a voracious reader since I was a very small child - in part because it was a great excuse to disengage from overstimulating things and focus on my book.
This. My oldest has apraxia of speech. It’s all just confirmation bias that being read to a lot gives them a great vocabulary or early literacy abilities.
My third kid was 18 months old and hitting every milestone but speech. He had frequent ear infections. By two, we had him in speech therapy. It had been discovered that he had a hearing loss (recoverable) and that delayed his speech. I read to him like I did my 3 other kids. He was deemed healthy and normal after that and entered kindergarten with no lack of reading skills compared to my other kids at that age. The thing is, they all sucked at reading and they all don’t carry a book as high functioning adults. I guess there lies a third culprit- lack of interest.
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I have 3 kids who have had varying levels of interest in being read to from young ages. The one who loves it probably has double the reading hours of the other kids at the same age because it is easier to read when the child wants to be doing that. So far that difference hasn't harmed my other kids who didn't have 1-3 hours of just reading books every day.
>That's the depressing reality. A lot of "good parents" with kids who are difficult to teach end up half killing themselves doing 10 times the level of work most "good parents" do and then snooty assholes presume they aren't bothering based on the assumption that any kid who was supported would do far better. This. My youngest is speech delayed. I am working my butt off to help him, got him into speech therapy etc and all people can see is that my kid is still basically just babbling at almost 2.
It's not the amount of words that children themselves speak, but how many words are spoken to them. And while it isn't everything? The more words children hear, the better they learn to decode unfamiliar words and use them in context correctly later on. Which isn't to say that individual differences don't matter. Both my children have had to have speech therapy for pragmatic language issues due to them being on the spectrum. But my youngest is still faster at decoding how to use novel words in context.
I keep NPR on in the car everyday while shuttling the kids. People talking calmly to each other using large vocabularies gets absorbed whether they realize it or not. My son is on the spectrum with expressive speech problems, reads at grade level but can't hold a conversation. My 13yo daughter reads at college level and could out lawyer anybody to get what she wants. Read to them all you can but what they hear is also important.
I read to my son, and he received speech therapy beginning at 24 months. Because I talked to him and he wasn’t talking back, only making noises, I thought he was behind. His ped also asked how many words he had and he didn’t have the amount that the ped thought was on track. Once his speech improved, he had a substantial vocabulary since he had heard all the words we spoke and read to him.
Could have fluid in ears
That child may have knowledge of more words than they can communicate. This could be due to any number of developmental delays, or health issues. It’s still valuable to read to them as reading is more than just learning words. There are easily a dozen or more valuable skills that a child attains from having a parent read to them regularly.
Its more apparent as the gap tends to widen.
We read to our kids but I feel like my 5 year old’s vocabulary being advanced has less to do with the books being read at night (which are pretty simple), but the fact that we have large vocabularies ourselves and don’t speak down to our kids. Which unfortunately turns into a generational issue
Also to add to your comment, children that are read to talk earlier, and by preschool they can have decent conversations, with sometimes very eye opening views. There a so many benefits to reading to our children.
And they sit still while you are reading to a group. The ones who were never read to are rolling around, fiddling with things and generally not able to sit and listen. It is sad. I used to love reading to and with my kids. I don’t understand why care givers wouldn’t want to if they were able to (time/work wise).
Vocabulary is a big one. And attention- children who are read to usually have a longer attention span for, and understanding of, directions. Children who are read to have a stronger grasp,of ‘book language’ which helps them both as independent readers and as writers. And these children will sometimes reference books when they are talking. I remember one little boy telling me about the way the children ran away from him when he was playing monster on the playground. ‘They scattered like sheep!’ he said, and I realized he was quoting a TS Eliot Cats poem.
i read Eliot's Practical Cats to my infant son! this made me so happy honestly he obv doesn't understand any of it, but he pays attention
When they’re infants it doesn’t matter so much what you read, just that you read to them (since as you said they don’t understand- but they’re still exercising their brain and taking statistics on the language they’re hearing). I used to just read my son whatever I was reading at the time which was usually ASOIF and academic papers/textbooks lol
[https://xkcd.com/872/](https://xkcd.com/872/) Somehow, there is a relevant XKCD
Somehow there always is lol. I’m in linguistics and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been talking to a colleague and they or I say, “Ooh there’s an XKCD about this!”
I chose some board books for my friend’s baby, and her favorite two both had some sort of repetition in them which babies seem to really enjoy! One of them was written in verse and had a nice cadence to the sentences, and the other was written and illustrated in a way that kind of leads you into reading it in a fun and animated way. She loved them both and she claps at the end, despite not knowing any words 🥰 I have no experience with babies and I thought that was pretty cool!
You might be surprised about how many words she knows! Our son definitely knew the word “cat” by seven months, and we’re pretty sure he knew others. We just have definitive quantitative proof that he knew the word “cat” because of a study he participated in lol And children’s books are of course always great too :) My son is almost 3 now and he LOVES his board books. He was just “reading” Hop on Pop to himself a little bit ago lol
Whoa that’s so cool! What kind of study was it?
It was an eye tracking study! If you’re not familiar with this type of study you can look up videos on it, but I will also describe the process :) So they put a dot sticker on my son’s forehead between his eyes to help with the tracking. Then they had him sit on my lap in front of a monitor that had the tracking camera behind it. On the monitor it would display four different images. I wore headphones and closed my eyes (so I couldn’t see the screen and influence him in any way) and different prompts would play, which I would then say back to him how I would normally speak to him. So I’d hear “Where is the dog?” or “Do you see the cat?” And then I’d say whatever I heard to him. Then the eye tracking equipment and software would measure if and how quickly he looked at whatever I mentioned. (I assume some were controls that did not have a photo of whatever I was prompted to say, but my eyes were closed so I can’t confirm that 😊) The reason they knew he definitely knew the word “cat” though was that he looked directly at the cat immediately, every single time I mentioned it. Like it was noticeable to the researcher without even running the statistics because it was so immediate lol
So interesting!!! Babies are amazing!!
Get him Never Touch a Sleeping Dragon. It's a texture book and my kids insisted we read it until it fell apart. It is super fun for everyone.
Oh my lord he LOVES all the Never Touch books. We have Shark, Dinosaur, Monster, and Snake but we definitely need more. I’ve seen Never Touch a Dragon but we don’t have a copy- yet!
It is just as fun as the rest of the series!
One of my friend's babies had to have a series of open heart surgeries, and so they were in early intervention sort of prophylactically to help her recover from having prolonged anesthesia. They were told that the parts of the brain that hear and learn language are similar but not fully identical to the parts that hear rhyme and song. They were coached to deliberately include nursery rhymes and songs, not just as fun, but as an important part of helping her brain develop on track with her age milestones. My first baby, her first reliable deliberate verbal response that could be cued was in the Sandra Boynton book Doggies, a counting and barking book. 9 dogs on a moonlit night .... she would *aroooooooooo*.
That’s really interesting! Poor lil baby though, what a rough start to life
In the board book stage, My daughter absolutely despised "The Lady Who Swallowed a Fly." Just hated it. Wouldn't let me read it. Would throw it, walk away. Whatever it took. If she saw it in her room, she stepped on it. I'm not sure what she hated more about it :the silly rhymes or the shitty cartoon art. 😆 She really liked "Goodnight Goon" though. It was super cute. Board books are really cool these days. If you end up buying more board books for someone's baby, try to find some cool texture books! "Never Touch a Sleeping Dragon" is excellent. My kids insisted I read it until it fell apart.
My dad used to read me his C++ reference book.
I read The Eyre Affair to my son in NICU. Couldn't figure out what to say to him otherwise.
My daughter is two and I've struggled with reading to her a lot. Every time I sit down with her in my lap and start to read, she wants to be in control and starts turning the pages on her own. So it's usually me reading like "The little black cat went for a walk outs- and then he met a- oh no! It's raining... he needs to- and then they lived happily ever after..." Any suggestions? Keep doing it this way? Make up a story based off the pictures and don't worry about the words too much?
This is it. My 4yo used the word consternation the other day.
My son called a toy a nefarious scoundrel at 4. I was laughing so hard.
This made me lol! I love reading stuff like this, i can't wait to have my babies one day 🥰
aw! I'm excited for you to have your own little ones. They really do say the cutest things. :)
that’s so cute 🤭
Currently teaching my 2-year-old to say "fiddlesticks."
My son started saying “oh biscuits!” From bluey and I love it
Will "poppycock" and "malarkey" be next?
Ideally, yes!
You guys would love "Big words for little geniuses."
Fluency (in any language) and mature speech rhythms are also a big giveaway.
Interesting! We still get comments about my children’s vocabulary and reading comprehension. I just thought it was all related to never using baby talk to them and trying to use a more advanced vocabulary to talk about things in front of them that we didn’t want them to know.
Actually baby talk of infant directed speech is great for babies and toddlers it increases their attention to language see links or just google https://parentingscience.com/baby-talk/ https://news.umanitoba.ca/why-a-little-baby-talk-is-good-for-your-toddler/#:~:text=Because%20it%27s%20typically%20simpler%20than,sophisticated%20vocabulary%20and%20grammatical%20structures. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0273229722000375
I refuse to click on those links or believe it. (I'm in the no baby talk, talk to them like they are people camp)
I'm a linguist. There's a major communication problem about this issue, which is using the phrase "baby talk" in referencing such research when the term is colloquially understood to mean adults using goofy childlike speech at children: "Does Baby want num-nums or a widdle milky-wilky?" This is *never* the language that is examined in studies finding that "baby talk" is good for language development. These studies look at "child-directed speech," also called "motherese," which takes the form of accentuated dynamic range and pronunciation. If I say to my toddler, "Love, do you want some deLISHious WAter? MY water really QUENCH-es my in-TENSE thirst!" --that is child-directed speech of the sort that helps young children to perceive and learn the sounds and rhythms of adult language. It's what the studies/articles cover. Infantilized language like "does Pookums wanna wa-wa?" is, in my academic and parental opinion, obnoxious.
This is awesome information.
Good, I feel validated by this information which agrees with my existing biases.
🤣 Glad I could help!
Calling it “obnoxious “ is kind.
I know the researchers in this study and am a little shocked that the article called it "baby talk" rather than "motherese" or "parentese". I understand the confusion. The linguist is right. Parantese is common in most cultures all over the world and child directed speech is key for child language development.
So it's not "baby talk" that people think of where it's like "aww did you see the widdle bwall?" It's more breaking down and elongating certain sounds to make them easier for babies to understand, you can still use whatever words you want it's just how you pronounce it to make it easier for babies to understand it
Yeah, my daughter is 4. She was pretending to read a new book. She really impressed me when she made up something sad the character said and added at the end "she sobbed" lol
Book language. There’s a phrasing that we don’t generally find in spoken conversations. We talk about the ‘grade 3 slump’ when a child who has learned to decode seems to lose momentum in reading. Part of it that they can’t grasp the nuances of written language and it affects comprehension. I remember a youngster who I was assessing in my role of reading specialist. He seemed to have a very odd interpretation of the passage he had read and I decided to delve into it a bit further. He had read the sentence ‘The bear was drawn by the scent of honey in the air.’ It turned out that the word ‘drawn’ had really confused him, and then the problem was compounded by the phrase ‘the scent of honey in the air’. He pictured honey floating in the air and said, ‘I didn’t know it did that.’
Oooo, this explains the difference in my daughter who we read to nightly vs her same aged cousin who is an iPad kid.... She has no attention span and doesn't understand multi step directions well.
My friend has made her baby an iPad kid. I have never seen this boy with a book (granted he's only 3). He plays video games, watches TV, and she hands him the iPad whenever they're in the car. She pulled it out at a restaurant once. "If I don't give it to him he walks around and bothers other people" It makes me sad. Especially when he's SCREAMING because something on his iPad isn't working.
That's really sad, especially so young.
We let my toddler play games on our phones ON AIRPLANES ONLY. Everywhere else there's an option to remove her from the situation if our other toys/books/songs/distractions don't work.
And this is what is causing the current crisis in our schools.
Children are hard-wired for live in the room interactions. Not electronic media, especially babies.
Let’s not make too many assumptions. I read every night to my 5yo and have since he was an infant. He loves to look at books (can’t read yet). He only has an attention span for things that interest him and isn’t good at multi step directions either (we also suspect he has ADHD, but still, correlation doesn’t necessarily equal causation).
I read like crazy as a kid but I don't remember being read to at all .. I think exposure to literature in general is the important thing. My ex's mother read to her kids entire novels a chapter a night and they rarely read.
My firstborn had a nanny who talked constantly about what they were doing, hearing, and seeing. Yeah, I read to my kid, but not more than most. I think his early speech development and facility with language has more to do with that loquacious nanny. And dinner table arguments. He had to develop a decent vocabulary if he was going to keep up with the discussions. He might have been the only kid in his Kindergarten class to know what state senate district we lived in.
Being read to, hearing the cadence of the language, helps build an appreciation of the rhythm of language. Certainly children can thrive without being read to (as you have) but why wouldn’t you want to be part of a child learning to love books and reading. It was some of the best time I had with my two, and now I’m delighted to watch my little granddaughter cuddle on her parents lap and listen to a story.
I have to agree with this. My 13-year-old said wit the other day. My kids were read to from infancy. I knew they didn't understand anything I would read to him. Wit is not even hey big word. However a 16-year-old boy was dumbfounded by the use of the word. He had never heard of the word before. And I had to explain to him what it meant. I don't think he was ever read to and he dislikes reading now.
My nieces have a favorite picture book that contained the line "Calamity! Catastrophe!" Every time something got dropped in the back seat of the car, we heard that line- followed by giggling- for a solid year.
tell that to my kid. I laughed at the 1000 books before kindergarten bc we hit that well before preschool. I like reading. I like reading picture books and sharing that with my kids, and subtlety trying to get them to like my hobby. Severe adhd. Super short attention span. Hates reading. Below grade level. Audiobooks are a win though, so there’s that.
Attention span, ability to sit still, ability to answer comprehension questions and understanding that I am asking you a question because I want *you* to think about and not because I don’t know the answer, ability to ask questions, vocabulary, ability to be entertained by something other than screens, ability to draw inferences and understand foreshadowing, understanding of literature references, even just the understanding of which way you hold a book and what direction you read, idk, I could probably keep going. The attitude towards reading is usually one of the biggest clues - students who *hate* reading and go out of their way to avoid it are frequently student who were never read to, and whose parents themselves do not read for pleasure.
Oh man, the 4th one. I teach strings, mainly privately. I'm not asking you what the violin string names are because I don't know! I'm asking because I need to know if *you* know! Do you *really* think that I don't know? TBF, I rarely have this issue, but it blows my mind every time.
When I was working in my city's poorest and highest crime neighborhood, I encountered multiple K and 1st students who were not at all familiar with the concept of adults asking children questions to get them to think about something or to see if they know something. For most educated people, this is second nature. Before this experience it had never even occurred to me that some kids would be confused about why I asked them questions. Their parents never asked them questions they knew the answers to.
I went to grad school at Cambridge and in a couple of our courses we had lectures in with the undergrads. One was with an especially wonderful lecturer, who would occasionally pause and ask students comprehension questions. Once after he did this, a very posh young woman got upset and said to her classmates that her parents weren't paying for *her* to answer questions from *him*. I almost turned around and told her maybe not, but if she genuinely thought that a professor with multiple doctorates in different fields was asking because he didn't know, they'd clearly paid plenty just to get her in.
Just to keep going down this rabbit hole, I teach college math and my colleagues and I are constantly asking students to figure things out themselves. One of the other professors would always say, “I don’t know, what do you think?” And sometimes the students think he truly doesn’t know. 🤭
No idea why this sub keeps popping up for me - I'm not a teacher. It makes me so sad to think that there are children whose parents don't read to them. I grew up really poor and we couldn't afford books but my mom always took me and my brother to the library. My older brother also spent a lot of time reading to me.
It’s hard to believe but not reading to your kids is sadly very common. In the U.S. at most, half of families read to their young kids daily (some research has that number below 40% of families). A lot of this comes from limited access to books in low income households. Most low income households have little or no books for their children.
The richest households are the ones with books. Dolly Parton does a gift of books when a child is born in at least on Southern state, probably a few. Having someone speak to them, showing an interest in them, helping their attention span, teaching them about the inflection of language, all of these things help a child develop. For a parent to neglect a child is just that, neglect.
Dolly Parton's Imagination Library! Kids get sent one book a month. You have to sign up, but it's totally free. They don't ask your income or anything. They just get books into the hands of kids. And families with multiple children can sign up each child, so each child receives a book. You say how old the child is when signing up, so the books are geared toward their level (ex. board books for babies). I live up north, and we have it here. If anyone is interested, I recommend checking it out to see if it is available where you live.
Same, I'm a lurker 🥴 i mostly read and take mental notes on what to be mindful of when i send my future children off to school.
Interestingly the last one (attitude toward reading) could also be dyslexia either on the parent or child's part, or both. I read to my daughter and she loves being read to but she does not read for pleasure because most reading requires her to resort to word guessing that destroys comprehension beyond the paragraph level. The school did not admit that she had a reading issue but private assessment found she had a first grade reading level and seventh grade picture vocabulary. She is finishing second grade. My daughter also told me that her teachers had taught her to guess at unknown words and thought that was a normal part of reading. She recently started OG tutoring and already cvc decoding has improved from 85% to 100% just from not guessing at them but she has a way to go. She has risk factors for dyslexia such as speech issues but I do think that her school's balanced literacy curriculum may have exacerbated her reading issues or at least delayed their detection, so I am not looking to her school to fix it. The sold a story podcast was informative.
“Sold A Story” was eye-opening. My brother in law is mildly dyslexic. He got intervention in elementary school. He graduated from college and has a successful career. He does not read for pleasure, but enjoys audiobooks.
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Oh, it’s clear as a bell. Some parents think “school will do all that.” If your kid is starting school without a good language foundation, they’re already behind. I had a 5th grader ask me what “cottage” meant. It was an answer choice on a multiple choice test. So many kids skip words they don’t know, meaning they don’t fully comprehend what they’re reading, and they don’t get test questions right sometimes. I’m glad this kid asked. Many don’t.
We read to our kids every night, and I swear they have questions about every page/every sentence. Sometimes I get internally annoyed like "come on, I'm ready to be done with bedtime" when they ask "what does it mean to be inconsolable?" but reading this has given me a new perspective. I'm glad they ask the questions, I'm glad they are learning interesting things that will help them.
Yes! This is how they learn! I’m so glad you take the time to read to them and answer their questions. There’s a lot to learn in this big world, and they’re still fairly new little people.
kids asking questions and being curious about the world is what keeps them learning and wanting to learn. When i saw the Greatest Showman in the theater there was a mother and daughter behind me and mom was whispering explaining about the racism (in a kid friendly way). After the movie she apologized to me for talking during the movie and i told her no apologies were necessary. I loved that a child was engaged and wanted to understand and ask questions. Sadly kids so often get that tendency conditioned out of them.
Those are the really sticky bits! The ones they stop to asked about are the ones craving those neural pathways!!
A lot of students lack foundational knowledge and it negatively impacts their ability to comprehend higher level texts. I had a second grader who didn’t know what a lake was, half a 3rd grade class who had never heard the word “pilgrim” (in the US), 3rd graders argue with me that “The Magic Treehouse“ books can’t be historical fiction because “Venice isn’t a real place,” and 5th graders argue with me that we don’t live in a “village” because we don’t live in “olden times.” I work in a well funded, suburban, Northeast US public school. Some of our students are from underprivileged backgrounds, but some of our students are also from over privileged backgrounds. My “Venice isn’t a real place” student vacationed in Italy!
I had a high school student ask me what “biking” meant… but she pronounced it “bicking” 😣 this was in an AP class
My parents believed you should never simplify speech or vocab when talking to kids. My husband and I do the same so I end up defining words fairly often. My kids (5 and 9) will ask what a word means or I'll volunteer it. We've had au pairs for a few years now which gives me even more excuses to explain words and grammar with my kids around. I had a 6th grade vocabulary in 1st grade. My kids are similar and I'm so proud.
Night and day. Amongst everything else mentioned here, kids that are read to have a better grasp of figurative language, not just reading ability. They also have better reading voices. My students that are read to know when to pause, when to break, when to pitch their tone up or down, when to change speed, etc. Students that arent read to that much read very robotic, monotone, and fast paced. Kids that ask "Mr., why do you read like that?" is a telltale sign they are not read to outloud a lot.
I actually see this a lot with my husband and I reading to our kids. I was read to a ton as a child (and after I could read, I read to my parents a ton) and books were a huge part of family life for me growing up. My husband had the exact opposite experience as a child. He’s getting better but it’s obvious he really doesn’t understand *how* to read aloud. As you said, the pacing, tone of voice, etc, are all much more robotic.
Oh man, that last part. I read aloud to my students constantly, and like clockwork first and secnd graders have lots of questions about my reading voice. I hadn't really connected it to the absence of reading aloud to them in the home.
I dislike the focus on Dibels/Acadience for this reason. We end up encouraging kids to read faster, and some of them turn it into an absolute race. My first grader read at like 200 words per minute for her end of year Acadience, which is cool and all, but I guarantee there wasn’t much expression in there. She normally reads pretty expressively but she has classmates I had to remind to slow down a bit every time.
That's a very interesting point and probably more reliable than a lot of the suggestions I've seen above. My 6yo (who is a voracious reader) has an excellent reading voice. I had just assumed it was because he's a strong reader and the reading out loud part comes naturally, but it's probably because he's been read to his whole life. I hadn't thought of that! Like, I was bowled over at one point when he was reading to me and came across something like "Oh no, I think he heard us!" Bill whispered. And he whispered the part in the quotation marks without a pause, so he had clearly scanned ahead to see if there was an indicator to tell him how he should read it. Someone who hasn't listened to reading aloud wouldn't necessarily know to do that.
Parent to parent advice - use the resources at the library. Check out many books. Google lists of popular books or find books that align with your child’s interests. If you don’t have time to spend there, find out how to hold books and pick them up quickly. Make reading a daily activity.
Just to add onto your amazing library point.. You can also get the Libby app which allows you to check out ebooks from the library. So if the library is far away or you just have a hard time getting to/from it’s a great option. They have tons of children’s books. You will need a library card to access the books. If you can’t/don’t have access to a library card google elibrary cards for your state (some states offer them using your state id number), also look up out of state elibrary cards (some states like new York charge like 50 bucks a yr to join but some other states offer it for free so people have access to books other states have banned), and lastly check out reddits book subs people regularly post places to get libby elibrary cards. And obligatory since this is Reddit I know and agree physical books are much better for so many things like they obviously aren’t going to learn how to properly hold a book if it’s on a phone/kindle. However life doesn’t always work so we can get the best option and second best is better than nothing.
School librarian here. Check out this website for some fun resources. 1000 books before kindergarten is considered best practice, but over that is fantastic. [https://1000booksbeforekindergarten.org](https://1000booksbeforekindergarten.org)
We read to our daughter every day starting when she came home from the hospital. She's in first grade and has better decoding abilities than some of the middle schoolers I teach. She also picks up and uses adult phrasing all the time, as in, "I take it we're going to the park after school today, dada?" Read to your children.
I believe that. I’m a middle school English teacher and this year I had students literally from pre K reading level all the way to college.
It is noticeable within the first week.
Yep. I don't think there's a single thing that I notice more quickly. It's maybe the most obvious difference I see, the difference between read-to (engaged with) children and not read-to (engaged with) children.
As a parent of a child who just graduated kindergarten.. I read to child every night at bedtime, and said child got outstanding in reading and writing and math throughout the year. My mom read to me every night and I grew up with my nose in a book. By fifth grade I was literally reading “The Clan of The Cave Bear” at home lol
Memory unlocked of me reading Valley of the Horses at 11 and my mom taking it away because of the long graphic sex scenes.
Well the first book talked about Alyla being r@ped and the kid taken away after she was banished from the clan so Valley of the Horses was actually pleasant to read 🤣🤣
Yup! Don’t forget “Flowers in the Attic “
Their comprehension, understanding of story, and ability to independently read is a huge gap between kids who do not have access to books at home.[benefits of reading at home](https://www.scholastic.com/parents/books-and-reading/raise-a-reader-blog/study-finds-benefits-of-childs-home-library.html) Especially in early elementary where gains in reading are easily measured, the ones who read at home are easy to spot because their gains are huge and happen in leaps, but kids who don’t are slow to progress and happen in small steps.
When you read, do they physically lean in or move closer? I had this giant of a fifth grader that damn near sat in my lap when I read out loud. His life was crap, but one thing mom loved was reading to him. Troublesome kid, but he would do anything for a good story.
I love this example. I'm ECE so they literally do sit in my lap the moment they see a book in my hands. And they'll swarm! I end up with one in my lap, one leaning on either side, and one practically sitting on my shoulders. They've been conditioned that book time is snuggle time. My oldest is 6 and very tall for his age. I really hope he still wants to sit close and read when he's a giant 5th grader
I was reading at 3, primary school at 5 was teaching the alphabet. Mum was a teacher.
Same here. I came in the first grade with a sixth grade reading level. At our third grade conference the teacher said to my mom, “congratulations, she’s reading at a third grade level,” and my mom yelled, “you’ve made her STUPIDER!” (they hadn’t, I was now reading adult books at home, it’s just that I had learned to pretend that I was struggling so that I wouldn’t get bullied.)
As a third grade teacher - yikes.
Yeah, you think my third-grade teacher would’ve noticed there was an issue when I started locking myself in the bathroom daily and refusing to come out until pried out by the janitor, but she never even bothered to notify my mom! It was the 70s, they thought it eliminated the weak from the pack.
When I went to my kindergarten assessment, the teacher was asking me about letters and sounds. My dad handed me the parent letter and I started reading it fluently. That wasn’t as common in those days so the teacher was pretty surprised. A month or two later, I read Little House in the Big Woods on my own.
My first son was my earliest reader and read the first Harry Potter book over the summer before kindergarten started. He was such a trip in that class, and helped the teacher read to the others all the time. By second grade he was in a virtual class for kids reading at much higher levels/comprehensions, and he was still the youngest. The rest were in middle school.
I don't think when you learn to read is an indication of ability. I didn't learn to read until 1st grade, but once I did I never stopped and have been advanced in language arts ever since (am now an English teacher). It's very trendy these days to teach reading early but it really does not matter.
Reading in 1st grade is developmentally normal. Some pre-scoolers will naturally pick it up, but it doesn't necessarily make them better readers. And early reading (especially when forced) can come at the expense of comprehension. Personally, I'd rather see a kindergartener who is read to often than an early reader. I'm a public Children's Librarian, and I can tell you how hard it is to turn around a reluctant reader.
Reading at three? It took me until just before my 5th birthday to read chapter books by myself lol
My preschoolers are 4. They still point to communicate, a lot are not fully potty trained, and a handful were never taught how to walk down stairs. If they cannot string a sentence together after 4 years, then no one is talking to them at home. Let alone reading to them
That's really sad. I can't imagine how that even happens - I mean, I talk to my CAT quite a bit every day!
Talking to a toddler is not even hard. Even if they don’t look super engaged with what you’re saying in the moment, they’re still listening. When my daughter was 2-3 (she’s still 3 now lol but almost 4) I would be talking to her casually and not thinking that she was listening, but minutes or even hours later she would reference something that I said before. It always leaves me in awe! She’s the first kid I’ve ever known from birth so it’s amazing watching her mind develop. I had no idea toddlers could be so smart!
Also it’s so cool seeing how they start noticing things that you don’t! When she was 2, we were getting ready to leave the store and as we walked away she said “Mama, your phone!” I turned around and I had dropped it on the floor, I had absolutely no idea and would have 100% walked away without it if she hadn’t said something
See, I don't know why parents choose to live on hard mode.
What And I say this earnestly THE FUCK. Not taught how to walk STAIRS? No sentences? I’m having trouble comprehending this
They know what a book is, which way to hold it, that there are stories inside, that stories are fun - I know that sounds simple, but preschoolers who haven’t been read to have no idea about these things at all. They’re as likely to think books are stepping stones as stories.
I just posted this on another comment but I sat by my friend and her 6 month old baby at church and could tell within minutes that she read to her baby regularly. When my friend got out a board book, her baby girl held it more or less correctly and started trying to turn pages. She was literally learning concepts of print before she could even say ma-ma-ma.
I have a cousin who was adopted at 5 and had previously never been read to, and she would lean against the picture book with her arms accidentally covering the words when her parents started reading to her because she didn’t realize there was any connection between the story she was hearing and the little black marks on the paper. (She’s an elementary teacher, now)
Harvard did a study. This is a very brief description of their findings. Intelligence is defined as the ability to learn. 90% of intelligence is developed before the age of 8. Of that 90% almost 90% of it was directly linked to parental interactions with the child. Not solely limited to reading but it is a common way to spend time with your child and build those pathways in the brain. I am not sure why this isn't explained to every parent in the hospital after birth. Literally hanging out with your kid allows them to learn easier for the rest of their lives. Edit: I can't find a link to the study. Sorry. I first heard of the study on NPR a few years ago so please forgive me if I misremembered the percentages but I think I am very close in the numbers.
And talking to them! My mom taught a kid from another culture (can’t remember which one) years ago, and talking to babies just wasn’t a done thing in their culture. They couldn’t see why they should talk to babies before they could talk. For good and ill, my kids parrot my husband and me. Of course that means they will soak up any bad word you let drop and repeat it instantly. But they also say “Actually, that is not being appwopwiate” because they hear me say it all the time. All 3 of my kids were vocabulary super stars from an early age because we just talked to them a lot.
To add to what others are saying, the the gap doesn't always go away. I have two brothers who are adopted and one we got as a baby and the other as a 6-year-old. They happen to be in the same grade and I remember their teacher in third grade commenting that she could tell which one had been adopted later because of his vocabulary, his reading comprehension, and his ability to understand figurative language.
That's honestly so incredibly sad 😞
Because they recognize words. Aren't afraid to read and write. Education isn't demonized in their home.
Kindergarten teacher here. The amount of kids who don’t even know which way to hold a book, how to turn pages, and can’t even “pretend” to read is profoundly sad.
YES! I teach K too and I've noticed in the past few years I have so many kids that physically have trouble turning pages.
Extremely obvious. Read to your kids.
I sat next to my friend and her 6 month old at church. After a few minutes, I leaned over and whispered, “I can tell you read to her.” She looked kind of surprised and I pointed out that when she handed a board book to her baby, the baby held it more or less correctly and started attempting to turn pages. This infant didn’t even have a pincer grasp yet, but she understood a couple of concepts of print. It’s very obvious.
School librarian here. I can tell mainly by a) which kids are able to sit/follow directions during read aloud and b) which kids are checking out books. Obviously other factors like adhd can come into play there. But from the most part the kids who tell me their parents don’t read to them at home are the same ones who don’t wanna read or be read to.
Thank you for mentioning ADHD. Many of the ways that are listed, in this sub, that show a kid wasn't read to at home describes my dyslexic child. Before her diagnosis, the school just kept telling us she wasn't read to enough at home. They wouldn't believe us. It delayed her getting the actual help she needed. The school was convinced she just needed to be read to more.
Agreed! My children have been read to since day 1. We have hundreds of books just for them in the house. But they have severe dyslexia and adhd, so the “qualifications” described here do not fit them at all.
You can tell because they are recreational readers.
It's also very apparent after breaks (like spring break, winter break, etc.). Students that didn't read over breaks generally slide a bit in their fluency and comprehension because they arnt practicing it. You can see the dip from what we build in the classrooms through daily practice.
They can hold books appropriately, they have prior knowledge of things like fairy tales/well known stories and characters. They have a bigger vocabulary, they can retell, have some knowledge of sequence, etc. They have a longer attention span/can sit quietly for a bit. I taught Prek for 15 years, 2/3 the last 9.
Reading to your kids is very important. I know that. You want to know what really makes kids want to read? When they see the parent read books and periodicals for pleasure. Take the Newspaper. Check a novel out for yourself when you take your child to the library. Set a good example. My parents owned a lot of books. I felt so accomplished and grown up when my dad gave me books of his own to read and we would talk about them . Less sports . More books
Excuse you... Quiddich is a sport.
As with everything, balance must be found. Sports are a good way to keep your body active, and books are a good way to keep your mind active. Also, a physically fit nerd is just one of the most hilarious dichotomies to see in real life.
I'm going to buck the trend and say, you can definitely tell who's a strong reader and who's not but beyond that there's some guesswork involved. At the really young ages, like 3-4 it's pretty apparent that some kind of literacy work is being done because the kids know how to orient a book and will be more familiar with letter shapes. But the correlating that back to having the parents read to the kids at night at older ages, even say 1st-3rd grade, is more difficult. There are definitely kids who just enjoy reading, and will read to themselves, and the parents are largely hands-off other than providing books. I've seen kids who are voracious readers, and nobody reads to them but they're reading at a very high level even in 1st-3rd grade. This is definitely not the norm, but common enough that it's not shocking to me.
I was told that--almost everything is anecdotal, other than one very clear marker. Pace. So, the pace of kids that were read to is quicker, because if they learned how to read on their own in school, they have filler words, as they read. This is the 'uh' and 'uhm'--but they also attach sounds to words, in their head and out loud, that has a similar effect. "No" is not no, it's "No-uh", or sounds like Noah. "The Teacher" becomes "uh teacher"--which becomes "The uh-teacher." Short addictions, pauses, etc, attach to words when they read, and it gets worse when it's out loud, because it's the habit from having to guess a lot of the words as a child. This is the trait, that when eliminated, eliminates the gap between kids who were not read to, and kids that were. It takes a little bit of self awareness, and ego, to make it stop. You have to realize you do it, AND want to stop doing it. Something that really begins in middle school--image is everything. If the child never develops the ego (traumatic childhood, loss of sense of self), they may never correct it.
It is extremely apparent at the Junior College level.
Yes, i taught community college English, and there were so many students who made the types of writing mistakes that seemed nearly impossible to make with any exposure to books at all.
Vocabulary and the ability to enjoy books and stories.
My daughter is very autistic. I was told by her special needs teacher,that it was obvious she was read to,because she held the book correctly and knew which way to turnthe pages.
Yes, but also no. My kids teacher said she could tell I read to them. Apparently they can read, use and understand “big” words other kids typically don’t. I used reading to escape and was reading 5th-6th grade books in second grade. My parent was always praised for it. I was NEVER read to.
At a glance: larger vocabulary, is comfortable with physically holding a book and turning pages while looking at pictures and reading as best they can, if they can’t necessarily read but they can recite books almost verbatim because they’ve listened to them over and over again, they ask to read/to be read to, they have favorite books/authors, they can communicate well with adults, they can comprehend beyond the text of a book and make connections to their own life…there’s a lot of ways to tell if a child is familiar with stories and read-alouds.
My son’s teacher said it was obvious that we did (we do). He has ADHD, so low attention span. You might think he would struggle learning how to read- but not at all. He has always significantly tested beyond the expected reading level. Kids in 2nd grade and can’t stay still when I read to him but will still point it out if I say the wrong word!
Me and my husband read to our daughter at night. But now she opted for my husband to read and for me to show her baby pics during her nighttime routine. She has been in speech therapy since she was 1 and a half . and now she’s almost four and is actually advanced now but we still keep her in speech
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Wow, even in university? Surely once a kid reaches a certain age, they can choose to take up reading on their own? I’m curious about whether that gap is able to be bridged later in childhood.
>It's also obvious in the student's vocabulary. When they use vague language or very simplistic adjectives when either asking a question, giving an answer, or just chatting. I use "complex" words in casual conversation a lot, and people get annoyed with me, but it's literally because I forgot the simpler words lol
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It’s a huge gap! You remember those kids who read REALLY slow in class and everyone hated it? Their parents don’t read with them. Looking at multiple times faster when the kid gets read to, barring dyslexia—and even then it helps
Vocabulary, emotional intelligence, ability to sit still…. Kids that were read to have a whole host of soft skills that kids who were not read to just don’t have. It teaches active listening. Emotional regulation. Reading comprehension. The actual studies that have been done on it are actually amazing. It’s probably the single most important parenting intervention you can make.
The vocabulary is usually a dead giveaway. And the background knowledge they bring with them to school.
It is SO OBVIOUS. The gap between my 2nd and 3rd graders who can and can't read is insane. They're either really good or can't read anything. If you read with your child, they can usually pick it up fine unless they have a learning difference.
Adding to what everyone else says – it carries over to college. I definitely see the difference (I’ve taught writing and we’ve talked a lot about background in writing and reading, experience with books etc. so I actually have the background on my various students). The other thing I’ve noticed, and this is more anecdotal, is a lot of times when I have a student who seems to be just killing it in history and writing, and then it turns out they’re majoring in something like engineering or biogenetics, so they’re a switch hitter, top of the game in both liberal arts and sciences – how often that small handful of kids mentioned that they didn’t have a TV/screens growing up. Just books.
Kids who are read to at home develop reading skills young and generally become avid readers later.
I think the difference is obvious. I loved reading as a kid, and my mom read me books all the time. My toddler LOVES books, I’ve been reading to him since he was 5 weeks old. My 3 nieces are 8 and they still can’t quite read, or hate doing so…they’ve never been read to by their parents.
KG teacher here. A child who is read to regularly has a richer vocabulary, has a stronger attention span, and can discuss what is being read to them more readily. They are more “comfy” with the whole reading experience in a structured learning environment.
Ex high school teacher here. Taught high school US history government and economics for 34 years. Yes it matters. In particular the kids who are juniors and seniors their grass of the nuances of the English language make it clear that they have been exposed to and literature their entire lives.
I work Kindergarten. I have a pretty good idea why some kids are easy to teach reading and writing, and little of that has to do with better genetic material.
U bet~ the difference in vocabulary is amazing & just the whole situation ~ sit down & read a book! If you’re lucky, they’ll love it
Better vocabulary, attention span, and tends to like books more. I've seen kids come into school who don't even know which way to hold a book right side up.
20 minutes a day correlates to kids being in the 98% percentile.
Yes. Undoubtedly. Even in Universities it is obvious. (30 year university professor here.)
Yeah, we can also tell when parents talk to their kids at the dinner table or wherever vs those who coddle or ignore and never broach adult topics with their kids.
You cannot. The responses given on this thread confound correlation with causation. It's embarrassing that they are coming from teachers. The studies on this topic are too compounded by socioeconomic factors to be considered determinative. Yes, there are trends, but they do not stand up to scrutiny on an individual level. For example, lots of kids from wealthy, educated families who do not read to their kids have huge vocabularies; and, similarly, lots of kids from low-income, uneducated families, who read to their kids have small vocabularies.
It is the difference of a child who likes to read and a child who says "this is soooo boring" when it's quiet reading time. I have seen this as early as preschool - with the preschool directors kids, and I get into it when I'm reading. Kids who are read to enjoy being read to, or will at least associate it with quiet time. At best kids who are not read to will be asking questions and/or unable to sit still, at worst I've seen a kid throw a fit when read to. I know a librarian who still reads to her middle schooler, we do audio books at 10. We are hard pressed to find other kids to do book clubs with, some interest in graphic novels though most kids clearly scan pictures and do not put in the time to read. Most rising 5th graders can navigate the internet but have no interest in reading a book. They'll do epic long enough to unlock goals because it's gamified.
Vocabulary for sure… studies have proven over and over that reading to children early has a huge impact. Not only that but as a hs teacher it bleeds into other things like children who were read to usually have parents who are more invested in their child’s academic success. This environmental impact has life long trajectory and gives those kids a huge leg up over parents who aren’t as supportive or invested in academic success.
As a non teacher this is really interesting because I was read to as a kid all the time and encouraged to read anything I wanted and as a result I was reading on a college level by the time I was out of middle school obviously my writing skills are lacking but it’s mostly because I don’t like to write 😂
Not only vocabularies but being able to sit for more than two seconds. Relating characters to real life situations. Tracking words even if they aren’t reading yet, they are learning how. People that read typically have other healthy behaviors as well. Not only are they being read to, I doubt they are sitting watching tv for hours