Ideas to Promote Learning
Tom Sweigard, PhD, is an assistant professor of early childhood education at Cedarville University in Cedarville, Ohio.
Kaitlin Sattler is a junior at Cedarville University, pursuing a bachelor’s degree in multiage special education.
Summer has begun, and children are soaking up the sun and playing outside with all their friends. Mrs. Babb—the mother of Laura, age seven, and Josh, age three—watches her children play as she sorts through the papers that came home during the last week of school. In the stack she finds a suggested reading list for Laura, and Mrs. Babb sighs as she foresees the battle that will ensue when she tries encouraging Laura to read at least one of the books on the list or even to spend time reading aloud to Josh. “Not today,” Mrs. Babb thinks to herself. “I’ll have them start working on it next week.” But each week, she pushes it off one more week, trying to avoid any conflict with her children.
Allowing the reading list to collect dust during the summer is a common response of parents who have children who are uninterested in reading, but it is not an appropriate one because it allows students to ignore this important time of growth for an entire three months. Studies have shown that students who do not read or who are not read to during the summer months are prone not only to losing some of the reading ability they gained the year before but also to falling behind their peers academically, especially in reading. Researchers call this phenomenon “summer reading loss.” It is a critical issue in education today, causing academic growth to slow to a virtual standstill in some students and causing academic regression in others. Studies have blamed part of the achievement gap on this specific issue (Mraz and Rasinski 2007).
The efforts of parents and teachers can reduce the achievement gap caused by summer reading loss. What can you as parents do now with your preschoolers to prevent this problem at a later time? What learning opportunities and experiences will help your children have a positive attitude toward reading and a desire to read for pleasure?
Children who read regularly or who are otherwise exposed to good literature develop a larger vocabulary and better comprehension skills that will help them not only to read more fluently but also to communicate effectively and understand content areas more easily than do their peers (Tompkins 2007). Students who read as few as three or four books or hear books read to them can reap tremendous benefits and improve their reading proficiency in only a few months (Kim 2004).
Literacy Development in Young Children
Literacy growth, necessary to reading development in children, could actually begin before birth because babies can remember music and voices they hear while in the womb. After birth, infants continue to develop their literacy skills by listening to those around them speak. They then experiment with their ability to speak the language of adults by cooing and babbling (Lawhon and Cobb 2002). These listening and speaking skills make up a vital literacy-development step that helps young children understand the connection between spoken language and written text.
Environmental Print
The sign that reads “Wal-Mart” above the door to the store, the label “Crest” on the toothpaste tube, and the words “Fruity Pebbles” on the cereal box—these are instances of environmental print: words and symbols that children regularly see in the world around them (Tompkins 2007).
By the time young children begin to use complete thoughts or phrases in their communication, they are already beginning to understand the relationship between the print they see in the environment and the meaning it has (Bowman and Treiman 2004). Riding through a town around dinnertime, many two-year-olds will recognize the “Golden Arches” as McDonald’s. As part of emerging literacy, this stage identifies the period when children begin to comprehend the importance of written language. Once they begin to make such connections, they will then be able to understand the alphabet and connect each letter with the sound it creates. Emergent readers depend on context to be able to read and memorize texts. Following this stage, children will begin to take meaning from letter groupings and words. This is the beginning of the formal reading process.
Understanding the Process and Identifying Activities
Studies have shown that students who do not read or who are not read to during the summer months are prone not only to losing some of the reading ability they gained the year before but also to falling behind their peers academically, especially in reading.
Understanding the process of literacy development in young children is critical for parents who want to help their children learn to read well because it allows parents to select activities and experiences that encourage reading. In order to help parents identify activities and experiences that are beneficial to literacy development in children, researchers have studied which methods and programs work best for young children. Library story times help children develop their literacy skills, print awareness, alphabetic knowledge, and familiarity with a variety of literary genres.
Library Access
Children who frequently access library materials are noted to have a stronger interest in reading than their peers who do not go to the library as often (Kim 2004). When children go to the library regularly, they have access to multitudes of books that interest them and have a routine activity that they can eagerly anticipate. Children who have much experience with books, in any context, have a high probability of becoming excellent readers (Scarborough, Dobrich, and Hager 1991).
Parent Expectations
Maybe somewhat surprising, one of the most noted encouragements for literacy development is the expectations of parents. Parents who model excellent reading habits and create a home atmosphere in which reading is enjoyed and respected are more likely to instill in their children a passion for reading. Generally, students respond well to these expectations, pursuing reading as a pleasurable activity (Kim 2004).
Things You Are Probably Already Doing!
To encourage literacy growth, parents and other caregivers can use many practical ideas that are based on the language development of young children:
- Read aloud. Make reading to your children a daily routine beginning in the first days of their lives. As you read together, show your children the end pages and title pages, and point out familiar letters in the text. Ask your children to read any repeated sections. This reading time will introduce your children to book concepts and will help them develop a love for reading (Tompkins 2007).
- Incorporate words into play activities. Many young children play “house” or do similar activities that copy what adults do. Provide your children with books, old cookbooks, coupons, magazines, or anything else that has print. Children emulate what adults do, and they will use the props you give them and thus will practice using oral and written language (Janisch 2003).
- Talk about print as you go about everyday activities. While eating breakfast with your children, point out the words on the back of the cereal box. Point to signs on the road as you drive places with your children. Help your children identify letters on food items in the grocery store. These simple activities will help your children understand the value of print and will encourage them to make connections between spoken and written language.
- Color and write. Through coloring, children are taking a step toward developing their ability to write. Give them crayons and paper, and let them practice making print. While on vacation, ask your children to color pictures of what they see or to write words describing the activities they do.
- Go to the library with your children. Most libraries have story time or other programs for both school-age children and preschool children (Hughes- Hassell, Agosto, and Sun 2007). Take regular trips to the library, as mentioned above, and go to local bookstores. Make these visits fun outings that your children will want to do. Don’t underestimate the importance of these family trips.
- Set expectations. Create a home atmosphere that treasures reading, and model to your children the importance of reading by reading books aloud to your children and making sure that the books are appropriate for their reading level. Also, be a reader yourself!
In Conclusion
Children who frequently access library materials are noted to have a stronger interest in reading than their peers who do not go to the library as often.
The establishment of routines that promote literacy growth in the beginning years of life is critical to the development of young children. Activities that promote print awareness are simple and fun to experience with your children. You do not have to face years of battling with your children about summer reading assignments. Helping your children appreciate excellent literature is an important process and an achievable goal. As you incorporate reading into your children’s lives, your children will begin to appreciate not only the value of reading but also the summer routines of going to the library and bookstores with you.
Mrs. Babb and her children, Laura and Josh, experienced a wonderful summer together. There were family vacations, swimming lessons, lazy days, and fun trips to the local library. These trips to return and collect new treasures from the library, as well as the family’s nightly read-aloud times, motivated the family to share in the appreciation of good literature and reading.
Celebrate good literature for young children for the benefit of literacy development and reading growth as well as for sheer enjoyment. What could be better than reading a good book—such as the classic Goodnight Moon—in the car, at the beach, or at bedtime after a fun, relaxing summer day? Turn off the TV, have fun, and read!
References
Bowman, Margo, and Rebecca Treiman. 2004. Stepping Stones to Reading. Theory into Practice 43, no. 4 (Autumn): 295–303.
Hughes-Hassell, Sandra, Denise E. Agosto, and Xiaoning Sun. 2007. Making storytime available to children of working parents: Public libraries and the scheduling of children’s literacy programs. Children and Libraries 5, no. 2 (Summer/Fall): 43–48.
Janisch, Carole. 2003. The hurried child then and now: What this means for learning and literacy development. International Journal of Social Education 18, no 1 (Spring/Summer): 24–34.
Kim, Jimmy. 2004. Summer Reading and the Ethnic Achievement Gap. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk 9, no. 2 (April): 169–88.
Lawhon, Tommie, and Jeanne B. Cobb. 2002. Routines that build emergent literacy skills in infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. Early Childhood Education Journal 30, no. 2 (Winter): 113–18.
Mraz, Maryann, and Timothy V. Rasinski. 2007. Summer Reading Loss. Reading Teacher 60, no. 8:784–89.
Scarborough, Hollis S., Wanda Dobrich, and Maria Hager. 1991. Preschool literacy experience and later reading achievement. Journal of Learning Disabilities 24, no. 8 (October): 508–11.
Tompkins, Gail E. 2007. Literacy for the 21st Century: Teaching Reading and Writing in Prekindergarten through Grade 4. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Stumped About Summer? 9.3