Reading Aloud to Children-What Matters Most?

Research confirms: Reading aloud to children IS important.  

YOU’LL HEAR IT EVERYWHERE AS A PARENT: at the pediatrician’s office, early childhood classes, parenting groups, from teachers, in the news. Research indicates that reading aloud to children improves:

• Vocabulary
• Listening and Comprehension
• Storytelling ability
• Develops understanding of cause and effect
• School readiness
• Picture consciousness, imagination, and more

But is this what really matters most?

WHILE I LOVE STUDIES AND DATA, SOMETIMES (A LOT OF TIMES) I LOVE EXPERIENCE MORE. And my experience, observation, and reflection emphasize very different benefits.. I began compiling my own personal “Reading Aloud Benefits List“at the end of one fateful and awful day. Read on, I bet you can relate.

IT HAD BEEN A DAY.  THIS day we were all recovering from a 5-day stomach flu. Just as my daughter dumped out the contents of every drawer making a mountain of clothes, books, and knickknacks, my mother-in-law walked in with her friends to show them our house and “look at the trees” in our yard. I hadn’t showered in days, and the sink full of dishes competed with the jumbled piles of laundry, everyone vying for my attention. Suddenly, our neighbor’s dog ran into the house and threw up.  I was exhausted. 

It was time for bed, and no one seemed ready except for me.  My children, aged 4 and 2, shared a room.  I  propped myself on a pillow while my son carried over a stack of books. His sister crawled up to join us, choosing Brown Bear by Eric Carle. Nestled together, the silence was only punctuated by the faint crack of opening the well-read book. 

^{“Brown Bear, Brown Bear what do you see?  I see a Red Bird looking at me… “}

As I read the familiar book, I felt our bodies easing into each other. The chaos of the day flowed out of us, like a river becoming groundwater.  A memory flashed through my mind to years ago of my mother reading Brown Bear to my brothers and me. Recalling how my brothers and I were wildly rambunctious, we would nonetheless sink into an hypnotic stupor (after piling on and around her lap), and she would begin to read. Just as quickly, my thoughts returned to my children as they curled up on my lap, and after THIS day filled with mess, piles, vomit, and despair, I breathed in, relaxed, smiled … and continued to read. By “Blue Horse, Blue Horse” I had begun to mentally compile my personal Reading Aloud Benefits List and !! SPOILER ALERT!!: improved vocabulary does not make THIS PARTICULAR list…

Benefits of Reading Aloud to Children-According to Me:

• Creates an oasis of: Warmth. Security. Rest. Refuge.
• Magical Peace.  I remember the utter serenity as my mother’s arm encircled me, the rise and fall of her breath, my face gently rocked by the ba-bump of her heart beat. Experts might call this “regulation” or Heart Rate Variability therapy.  I call it being enveloped in a magical peace.
• Unspoken, deeply felt love and connection.
• Development of imagination and ability to think in pictures/visualize.
• Slow down life – living right here and right now.
• A shared focus that is tangible, tactile, energetic and full of vibration – all the senses are engaged in a shared experience through sound, sight, touch, thought and imagination.
• Shared Experience of great stories, characters, themes, struggles, triumphs, fears, and joys.

… AND Time Travel to the Beyond

NOW THAT MY MOTHER HAS PASSED AWAY, the hours and years of reading aloud to her children, students, and grandchildren is part of her beautiful legacy.  Even now, I close my eyes and am transported to our old sofa, snuggled under her arm. I can feel and hear the rise and fall of her breath, the slight lift of her rhythmic heartbeat, and the soothing vibration of her voice.  She is no longer here, but this connection lives on, and I celebrate the unexpected gift that reading aloud returns to me decades later.  I wonder if my children will feel the same way? I hope so.

KEEP READING whether snuggled on the couch, seated in front of a class, or helping adults to learn.  There is a place in all of us, no matter how old we are, that longs for connection, security, rest, refuge, love and magic.  What a gift that flows both ways… and even travels through time.