Talk to Your Children if You Want Them to Learn to Read
By: Mary Gallagher
Tags: Parenting, Reading, Education, Teachers, Literacy

As I work in my office, I can hear my neighbor in the apartment below me talking to and singing to her granddaughter. She’s talking to her only in Spanish so that her granddaughter will become bilingual.

She takes her on the balcony and points to flowers and names them, she shows her the dogs that walk by and says, “Mira — el perro!” When I walk by with my beagle, Ginger, she teaches her to greet Ginger by name.

All day, as she babysits, Grandma is talking to granddaughter in complete sentences, teaching her new words, and is engaging her in conversation. I’ve yet to hear her make a peep (I think she’s just shy) but you can bet she’s learning a lot.

Vocabulary development, being an essential link to reading proficiency, starts in the home.

There is a fascinating connection between talking to young children and learning to read that is rarely discussed. I first learned about this in my graduate work and the famous study that was referenced often is still the classic study that informs us about the importance of talking to children before they are school age.

Hart & Risley (1995)

For a short description of this study, you can read here. For our purposes, let’s talk about what the findings had to do with reading.

In summary, what Hart and Risley did was record the interactions in the home between parents (and all caregivers) and children, from ages 7 months to 3 years old, in different socioeconomic classes for one hour per week.

This study was one of the first to explicitly link vocabulary size to socioeconomic status rather than to the presence of a language disorder and demonstrated the importance of prior knowledge during assessment and intervention. -see source

The differences in the amount of language used in the homes between families of different socio-economic statuses were astounding and led to some links to vocabulary development which is critical for reading success. Tim Rasinski, a well-known expert on vocabulary and the role it plays in reading comprehension says,

Reading is not the only way vocabulary learning takes place; it occurs in other situations involving oral language…Tim Rasinski, Vocabulary Instruction: Essential for Proficient Reading

So what does talking to our children have to do with increasing reading proficiency?

Hart and Risley found that the more parents and caregivers talked to their children (as in incidents and the number of words spoken), the more vocabulary the child entered grade school with. Vocabulary development, being an essential link to reading proficiency, starts in the home.

If you’re wondering where to begin when it comes to ensuring your child learns to read successfully and becomes a lifelong reader, as many of the parents who join my Facebook group are, start with conversation!

Sing to your child, talk, expound on their sentences and vocabulary! When your toddler says, “Doggie!” answer with, “Yes, that is a doggie. Isn’t he cute? I love the way he wags his tail.” And point to the tail.

When you read books to your baby and toddler, go off script and point to the pictures, talk about the story, and make a point to connect the words to the pictures.

Read books to your child that are too hard for your child to read on their own. You may not realize it but by exposing them to new vocabulary words daily — long before they can read on their own — you are helping them develop the foundational skills they will need to become proficient and confident readers who understand what they read!