Building Literacy in a Young Child

Q. You hear about parents who "wake up" and discover their 10-year-old or even their high-school student can't read. I sure don't want that to happen to me and my child. What should I be doing with my son, who's 3, to give him the best chance to be a good reader on down the road?

�� There are dramatic differences in life outcomes for children who have good attitudes and abilities about reading, and those who do not. It's THE key task of parenting to help your child wind up in the first group.

But that doesn't mean drilling your child on phonics, or forcing him or her to try to read. Reading shouldn't seem like work. It should seem like play between a parent and a child.

The idea is to help your child love to read, not just view it as a means to an end, to get through school.

Here are some key concepts:

n Talk a lot to your child. Ask questions and give praise and affirmation. Avoid harsh orders and commands not to do things.

n Nursery rhymes and funny poems are great. Researchers think children love rhymes because they make order out of the chaos that the language often seems to be, to a young child.

n Play with words when you interact with your child: jokes, puns and nonsense syllables are helpful.

n Start reading aloud to your child in infancy and keep it up until about eighth grade. The more you talk to your child, the more your child's brain will grow. Reading aloud builds vocabulary until about eighth grade, when listening and reading comprehension levels finally dovetail. Until then, the best way to learn new words is to hear them.

n Limit TV to an hour a day.

n Ask your child's teachers to increase time spent reading aloud to the children, and having silent reading periods. The more time is invested in reading, the higher the achievement on down the road.

Homework: See Jim Trelease's The Read Aloud Handbook, and his website: www.trelease-on-reading.com