The Importance of Reading with Children

February 2013 - Issue: 2

Welcome to Raising Readers

The skills, knowledge and understandings children need to be successful readers are built long before kindergarten starts. This month we're providing tips on building your child's love of literacy and celebrating the program's success in 2012. Last year, the program distributed 162,000 books to 71,000 Maine children with the help of hospitals and medical practices across the state. We thank them and we thank you, the parents and caregivers of those children, for reading with them and supporting their journey to become readers themselves.

The Importance of Reading with Children

Reading stimulates brain development, and is a vital part of caring for newborns and toddlers. Giving out Raising Readers books at each well child visit gives healthcare providers the right opening to discuss reading with parent and child. "To some parents, reading may not seem important, but they trust us when we tell them how critical it is," says Dr. Brian Youth, clinical advisor to Raising Readers. "We have an opprtounity to impact decisions families make on how they spend time with their child. Because we give the books out in the offices, it's an experience that's available to all families."

Learn more in our Annual Report 2012.

A Love of Literacy

By making reading, talking, writing or drawing, and singing together a part of every day, we can help children gain the skills they need to be successful literacy learners throughout life.

Try some of these ideas to help your child fall in love with literacy:

Make a time to read to your child each day. It doesn't have to be all at once! A book in the morning, reading street signs on the way to the store, checking the weather on a website, all add up to reading time together.
Break up the routine by reading in unusual spots like outside on a blanket, on the porch, at the park, in the bathtub and so on.
When your child asks a question, show your excitement at the chance to look for the answer in a book or on a website like www.yahoo.kids.com.
Use your child's interest in a topic to connect them to text. If your child is really interested in rescuing animals like Diego, find books about animals. If your child enjoys how Dora explores, find a map of your area to talk about.

Learn how you can help your child build the skills necessary to be a successful reader and writer with our 2013 Early Literacy Calendar.