Parents Can Help Kids Joyfully Get Good at Reading
By Mark W.F. Condon, Unite for Literacy vice president
Three things that can interfere with children’s calm and relaxed learning are: distracted parents, chronic lack of sleep, and over-scheduled lives.
Digital buzz
The buzz we tend to hear about cell phones is typically about children who have their attention on texting with friends. We also hear about the time young children spend with online games and videos that can inhibit cognitive development. More recent reporting, however, turns the tables and focuses on how children consider their parents as not present due to their absorption in and time spent using digital devices. Rather than view this as a problem, I think this digital engagement might be considered an opportunity!
It is an opportunity for parents to demonstrate how digital devices can be used to access to educational resources. Consider, for example, the abundant online library treasures. These are an opportunity for parents to engage with their children about reading and all that’s available to explore. It is an opportunity, along with knowledge growth, to build interpersonal communication skills that are critical to literacy and school success.
Slacking on sleep
According to experts, too many children get too little sleep and end up groggy all day at school. Now, from my perspective, the very best transition from daily activity to sleep is reading books at bedtime and quietly discussing them in a relaxed way with loving family. Books create a perfectly smooth transition to bedtime. If reading and calm conversation becomes a natural part of a bedtime ritual, better literacy and ample sleep could result.
Packed schedules
Children who are over scheduled with extracurricular activities often have little time for the essential contributions of casual and socially rich play. Over-scheduling also means little time to sit quietly and read a self-selected book or two, and to engage with older offspring in relaxed, loving, conversation.
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, children who score proficient or higher on school exams tend to have a stock of 100+ books at home and they read for fun every day. So, children whose parents read books with them (not simply to them), engaging in casual conversation about what they’re reading, are children who get the rest they need and who also have space in their days for the magic of fully unstructured play.
This is an example where the research and data that parents encounter in the news or in parent support groups help support the principles that, on their face, are all at once deeply loving and intellectually enriching.