Read to your kids!

As I continued with the reading, it became clear that all the theories seem to be interrelated. Older theories have been updated as newer ones are brought to the surface. Some of the newer ones expand upon the older ones. The way the book is formatted helps to clearly distinguish between the different theories and ideas.

An idea running through most of the theories seems to be the importance of the child’s environment. It is so important for children to have “literacy-rich home environments” as well as strong school experiences. Reading to your child or showing them that you enjoy reading positively influences them and their reading abilities. Children should be immersed in language at birth. I found the original ideas of the Maturation Theory to be absolutely absurd! I can’t believe they once thought it would be harmful to introduce language to children before they were 6 and ½ years old! Thankfully modern theories have changed this to stress the importance of reading and talking to your children as soon as they are born.

I do agree that there are certain sets of stages children go through when learning to read. These stages occur at different times for everyone. Knowing this greatly helps teachers when planning certain lessons. As one of the teachers in the book mentioned, that is what differentiated instruction is all about. Knowing the individual children in your classroom and structuring activities around their abilities will lead to greater success for each individual.

What I gathered from the reading is that everything around the child will influence how they learn. If they are brought up in a home where reading is encouraged and modeled by the parents, then the child will be more likely to enjoy reading or at least be more willing to engage in it. Children who watch a lot of television will most likely not choose to read on their own. They will also struggle with it more than the child who was introduced to it at an early age. So parents, READ TO YOUR KIDS! =)