3 min read · Jan 12, 2016
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It is not a secret that reading is the key to success; we have been told and taught this from a very early age. Remember all those book reports you had to do for free pizza in elementary school? And now in the age of the internet — reading, writing, and communication skills are more valuable than any other skills you possess. What is the key to great communication and writing skills? You guessed it, reading.
It has been proven that children who read better, preform better in school and have a more active imagination, leading to a larger world and more possibilities for success. I have been reading well for a long time; my mother taught me to read before I went to preschool and I can say that having that knowledge early made my school days a breeze. Even in classes that were not my strong suit, being able to at least read the material well and understand it to the best of my ability often saved me. (Of course, this goes back to reading comprehension, which goes hand and hand with reading well. And children who were taught early tend to read better.) But, you probably don’t want to read about one person’s story, because everyone is different.
26% of children who were read to three or four times a week by a family member reconized all of the alphabet; compared to 14% of children who were read to less often.
The National Education Association (NEA) also reported that children who were read to more often were more likely to count to 20 or higher, (60% of those who were read to compared to 44% who were not or read to less often.) more likely to write their own names, (54% to 40%) and were more likely to read or pretend to read. (77% to 57%) Those numbers are pretty steep, showing a direct corroletion between reading and milestones. (milestones equal success for a child and often for the parent as well.) In fact, children’s academic success aged 9 and 10 can be linked to the amount of words they hear from birth through the age of 3. But yet, the NEA reported that in 1999 only about 53% of children aged 3 to 5 were read to every day by a family member.
We can talk about these positive statistics all day, but the truth is there is also a dark side to this reading success…Some would call it a word gap. By 18 months, children from disadvantaged homes are already several months behind other children in terms of language proficiency. Unfortunately, this gap grows rather than shrinks over elementary school years.
In America, 1 out of 4 children grow up without learning to read, and students who don’t read proficiently by 3rd grade are 4 times more likely to drop out of school. 2/3 of students who cannot read proficiently by the end of 4th grade are more likely to end up in jail or on welfare; 70% of America’s inmates cannot read above a 4th grade level.
It does not have to be this way. Educasic and Sights are here to help!
Do you teach sight words in your classroom? Check out www.getSights.com.
