Reading aloud to kids has long been acclaimed has the proven
method for language and cognitive skills development.
Needless to say that infants and toddlers learn their mother
tongue by what they hear and speak out loudly while reading their ‘ My First
words ‘
It enhances speech and stimulates learning.
But reading aloud is as essential for kids of age group 5-10
years of age and beyond as well.
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| image courtesy : mysightwords |
Get here Top 6 reasons on the importance of reading aloud :
1. Enjoyment :
When children read out stories or plays , they are
transported into new worlds—ones that they create in their own minds, ones born
of words, and ones charged with emotive energy. Because children
will not become good at something they don't enjoy doing, we must offer them
literature-based experiences that are positive, engaging, and enjoyable.
They
experience a feeling of inclusion in the story and therefore improve
imaginative skills alongside. They are able to practice role plays , get into the
characters and feel like being the hero or the magical queen.
Who knows, we are
seeing the next big theatre artist !
2. Development of qualities of an orator :
Politicians might be criticized at all the points, but one
place that you will agree is that they are amazing orators. They capture the
eyes , minds and attention of thousands whom they lead by the power of their
words.
Without being politically biased, I must mention our prime minister
Mr.Narendra Modi who is an exceptional orator same as his mentor Mr. Atal
Bihari Bajpayee. Legacies have changed , such is the power of their speeches
which can be true for young kids too if they learn to read aloud and practice
for their morning school prayers or speeches.
3. Prepared of debate competitions :
When children read with expressive skills, they will also
develop more confidence in themselves as readers. No longer limited either to
rapid word-calling or to stumbling over print, children will discover that,
with practice and guidance, they can become more fluent, purposeful, and
effective readers without fearing words or audience. With repeated success,
their confidence levels will rise.
When they listen to themselves they understand if they are sounding
right and if it all makes sense what they are speaking. So they are able to
monitor themselves.
4. Become a narrator :
Children , while reading aloud , tend to put their emotions
into it. Rather you can help them with this by reading along with them .This
will help them gain control over their diction and hence seek an opportunity to
become a narrator at the school function and later in college feat.
When children prepare to read expressively,
they will develop competence in grammar, memory, attention, sequencing, and
understanding cause.
Reading with command takes time, focus, and attention; and
if children are going to read aloud well, they can prepare a text for oral
reading. they will gain a greater understanding of how grammatical and
rhetorical structures (sentences, stanzas, and paragraphs) work and how the
sequencing of words and ideas plays an important role in the delivery of
meaning.
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| image courtesy : storiesandchildren |
5. Enhance fluency and comprehension :
Fluency is an essential part of successful reading.
Fluency is based on automaticity (a reader's ability to recognize words
automatically).
If children are to become both automatic and fluent readers,
they need practice. Preparing to read a text aloud expressively provides
children with the time and means to recognize words automatically and to read a
text with a high percentage of accuracy
When children use techniques for expressive oral reading,
their comprehension of what they are reading dramatically increases.
Since
fluency is closely tied to comprehension, when children become smoother and
more accurate readers they will also become more knowledgeable ones. By
practicing a text, children will become more familiar with its words, sentence
patterns, and organizational structure.
Once children become familiar and
comfortable with a text, they are then in a position to make discoveries about
the different kinds of meanings (both denotative and connotative) that may
emerge from their interaction with the text .
6.Develop stronger vocabularies and language structures :
If children are to become successful, independent
readers, they will need to have a large, active, mental storehouse of words and
language structures (sentences, paragraphs, poems, stories, etc.). When they
are regularly exposed to words and language patterns that are outside their
normal way of speaking, children develop a stronger awareness of language and
its aesthetic and communicative possibilities.
Entwined with this stronger
awareness is a natural desire to put to use these new words and patterns. This
new linguistic awareness will make itself known in the way children speak and
write—and in their ability to read and understand increasingly sophisticated
texts. They will become aware of a variety of writing generes and get familiar
with them.
Reading aloud also counter affects the passivity that excessive TV
viewing has. Rather that accentuating speed and quick cuts, as does TV,
literature read aloud promotes a slow unfolding of events, images, and
ideas—items that must take fully embodied shape in the minds of the listeners.
So you see , reading aloud is as important for older kids
too. Well it might sound a bit odd but you should even consider reading out to
them still.
Picture this : You simply try to command your child, "I
don't want you to hang out with so and so,"
But that's a lecture that will probably go in one ear and
out the other.
But if you read a
book about a kid who gets in trouble by hanging out with the wrong crowd, your
child is going to experience that directly, and she's going to experience it
with you at her side, and you can talk about it together. A discussion may flow
out.
You can ask questions like: "Do you think the boy made
the right choice?" "Do you think that girl was really her
friend?" When you talk about a book together, it's not a lecture, it's
more like a coach looking at a film with his players, going over the plays to
find out what went right and what went wrong.
Happy Reading then!
