Joseph Coehlo, the current Children’s Laureate spoke recently about what makes a good writer. From always carrying a notebook with you for when inspiration hits, to observing the world around you to using your own art as a starting point, his ideas were accessible and entertaining. However, he was at pains to say that great writers are also great readers: he said, ‘Read widely, and read everything because you never know what book will inspire your next great story.’
Reading can overcome multiple barriers. Reading to babies and children stimulates their language and listening skills, helps them to build empathy and of course supports their literacy and academic performance. Book Trust’s paper on The Benefits of Reading (2023) noted that children who are read to and then go on to enjoy reading throughout their childhood, teens and beyond, are significantly more likely to ‘be happier, healthier and experience better well-being and self-esteem’.
Reading helps to develop secure attachments; I am sure we all have memories of having a book read to us as a child. For me it was The Elves and The Shoemaker, which I apparently demanded to be read to me every night for months on end. I am sure my parents adapted and developed the story each time they read it to me, partially for their own entertainment but also with the added benefit of exposing me to ‘extra-textual talk’; reinforcing new words and introducing new ones. As a parent, reading Cressida Cowell’s ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ books with my children not only was a wonderful calm way to end the day together but also the perfect excuse for them to ask for another chapter and extend bed time for a few more minutes.
In their 2018 report; ‘Mental Well-being and Writing’, Clark and Teravinen-Goff noted that children who read have higher levels of well-being and happiness. Reading is another opportunity to escape into a different world, showing us all how characters face and deal with adversity, develop resilience and collaborate with others.
Reading should be relaxing and fun, just as we tuck into a good book when we want some time out, or are winding down for the day, we aspire for our children to be able to do the same thing. At the Prep School the girls spend significant parts of each day reading and become immersed into their books; it is a delight to see our girls with their head in a book or sharing a new literary discovery with their peers, but we are aware that this is not always the case at home.
There are many ways you can support your daughter to read. Have books as part of family life; if they see you reading, your children will want to copy you. Make reading time together calm and relaxing, rather than another job to get through at the end of the day. Remember, all reading is good; be it fiction, non-fiction, comics, leaflets or even the side of the cereal box; every word matters. The words that children come across in books will be more complex with a greater breadth of specific vocabulary than everyday conversations in a family setting and enables children to give a special importance to the words that they read.
A 2019 study by Ohio State University revealed that a child who is read to regularly will have experienced over one million more words by the age of five than one who is not. Children who hear more words are better prepared to see words in print and are more likely to pick up reading skills with greater ease. For neurodiverse readers, hearing the book read to them is just as valuable; audiobooks, or another voice reading the words provides a judgement free zone. Inflection and emotional cues that aren’t as easily recognisable on the page are quickly understood when words are read out loud, and audio books can be read at varying speeds for those whose brains work at a different pace.
For a child to grow up with reading, for the love of reading to take root and become part of their life, they are enabled to enrich every aspect of their future.
By Mrs Helen Parrott, Prep School Teacher and Prep School English and Humanities Coordinator
