It’s just you, your child, and the wonderful world of books and children’s literature. Plus, it’s probably less boring than listening to the Cocomelon intro all day, right?
I’m sure your little one enjoys all the Peppa Pig and Cocomelon marathons, although nothing beats reading to them for you and your child.
This was one of the factors studied in research conducted by Jessica Logan. You might hear the term “word gap” used a lot here, so let me give you an overview of what it is.
You’ll love this next piece of information!
If you’re one of those parents trying to raise a book-loving child, you’re on the right track.
Reading to a preschooler, assuming your favorite books have a varied selection of words, makes them much more literate compared to children of the same age who are not read to.
But don’t just take my word for it; check out the study published on this topic. The secret is in word discovery, which holds a few keys.
In simple terms, the word gap is the difference in the number of words children learn at a certain age and how it varies among different children based on their background.
One thing that can really make a difference is what’s called “lexical diversity,” which is lexical diversity.
It makes sense, doesn’t it? The more different words your child hears from you, the more they’ll learn, even if they don’t know it.
Surprisingly, 25% of parents and caregivers don’t read to their children. Even though 75% do, 25% is still a significant number. That’s a quarter of all children falling behind in reading and writing.
Certainly, no parent should have to choose between work and their children. It’s always frustrating and sad to spend more time dealing with emails or flipping burgers than staying home with your child.
But feeding them and paying the bills is a priority, isn’t it?
However, when you have more time to spend with your children, try to spend it reading to them. Every little reading moment you share with them can mean an easier and more enjoyable time for them when they reach kindergarten.
The study used 60 frequently read children’s books to assess how often your children are exposed to new words.
One picture book every day will be about 78,000 words per year. It seems we underestimated how far children’s books can go, huh?
Over the 5 years leading up to kindergarten, they would have encountered about 1.4 million words, according to the study’s estimates. Your child can retain a lot more information than you think.
So, if you’re raising a child and planning for them to go to school, you can do them a big favor and enhance their literacy through simple reading. This million-word gap doesn’t create itself.
It might also be much smaller if read to more children.
Children’s books may seem like they’re just there to take a few dollars from your wallet and sit on the shelf, but nothing could be further from the truth.
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