Growing up, our day would always end with my mum or dad reading a story to me and my little sister.
We would either all pile into the big bed, or, as my sister and I were sleeping in bunk beds, whichever parent was on reading duty that evening, would just sit on the floor beside the bottom bunk and read a story or, as we got little older, one chapter of whatever book we were in the middle of before it was lights out and time for sleep.
This was our bedtime routine every night, for as long as I can remember. And so it was only natural that, when I had children myself, I would keep this lovely tradition up. From my children were babies, we always read stories at night. At the moment, we all get under the covers on the "big bed" and read – they each get one story or one chapter if it is a longer book, and these 20ish minutes are hands down my most favourite time a day.
And as it turns out, reading to children isn't just a lovely way to end the day, it is also, according to a new study, a
vital form of early childhood education.
In fact, a recent study published in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics found that kids whose parents read them five books a day start kindergarten having heard more than a million more words than children whose parents don't read to them.
One million words – wow.
And if five books per day sounds a bit like ain't nobody got time for that, don't worry—the researchers found even one book per day gives kids a boost of about 290,000 more words by age five. "Kids who hear more vocabulary words are going to be better prepared to see those words in print when they enter school," Jessica Logan, lead author of the study and assistant professor of educational studies at The Ohio State University, explains.
Logan says she felt passionate about this research because she was pretty shocked by what she heard during one of her previous studies, which found a quarter of kids are never read to. "The fact that we had so many parents who said they never or seldom read to their kids was pretty shocking to us. We wanted to figure out what that might mean for their kids," she explains in a media release.
Logan and her colleagues did the math using the 100 most read board books and picture books checked out from the Columbus Metropolitan Library,
Based on these calculations, here's how many words they estimate kids hear by the time they are 5 years old:
If they're never read to, they'll have heard 4,662 words.
If they're read to 1-2 times per week, they'll have heard 63,570 words.
If they're read to 3-5 times per week, they'll have heard 169,520 words.
If they're read to daily, they'll have heard 296,660 words.
There is no denying that there is a massive and striking gap here between the vocabulary of children that are read to regularly and children that are not read to.
Logan also notes that there's a difference between the kind of vocabulary our kids hear in day-to-day life and the kind of vocabulary they are exposed to at storytime. For example, we are rarely going to run into a penguin in the real world, but if we're reading a story about life in Antarctica our children will hear a bunch of new words that will create meaning and connections in their little brains.
As well as the actual words in the book, Logan thinks children who who are read to regularly will hear even more words, as parents often
add bits of context or embellish a story if they've read a book quite a few times. Aa story will often also spark conversations about the book on the fly, as we are reading or when the story is finished, meaning children will hear even more words than those that are in the actual book.
Do YOU read to your children every day? Let us know in the comments or tweet us at @herfamilydotie
Based on these calculations, here's how many words they estimate kids hear by the time they are 5 years old:
If they're never read to, they'll have heard 4,662 words.
If they're read to 1-2 times per week, they'll have heard 63,570 words.
If they're read to 3-5 times per week, they'll have heard 169,520 words.
If they're read to daily, they'll have heard 296,660 words.
There is no denying that there is a massive and striking gap here between the vocabulary of children that are read to regularly and children that are not read to.
Logan also notes that there's a difference between the kind of vocabulary our kids hear in day-to-day life and the kind of vocabulary they are exposed to at storytime. For example, we are rarely going to run into a penguin in the real world, but if we're reading a story about life in Antarctica our children will hear a bunch of new words that will create meaning and connections in their little brains.
As well as the actual words in the book, Logan thinks children who who are read to regularly will hear even more words, as parents often add bits of context or embellish a story if they've read a book quite a few times. Aa story will often also spark conversations about the book on the fly, as we are reading or when the story is finished, meaning children will hear even more words than those that are in the actual book.
Do YOU read to your children every day? Let us know in the comments or tweet us at @herfamilydotie
