In Our Home: A Benefit of Reading Aloud

When we lived in Nashville, we became friends with Dean and Karen Andreola. Our children enjoyed playing with theirs whenever we could get together and were greatly disappointed when the Andreolas decided to move back to Oregon.

Some time after the move, the kids received a package with an audio tape in it. They were anxious to hear it, so we listened in the car. When we turned it on we were surprised to hear this perfectly lovely child’s voice with a delicate British accent (just like Karen’s) reading aloud from a good book. She read so well, with appropriate expression and dramatic timing, that we were all held spellbound for a moment. “That’s Sophia! She’s a good reader,” someone offered. Soon, another sweet voice came on with another wonderful reading. “That’s Yolanda! Isn’t she great?”

We were captivated by their readings- we could count on one hand the number of children we knew whose language skills were so evident. But upon further reflection we realized that we should not be surprised. These children were raised on good literature read aloud to them by their mother and father. Their home was full of verbal interaction and good language. We were simply seeing the fruit of that environment.

With a good example ringing in their ears, our children were motivated to create their own tape of readings and other offerings, which they did with admirable verbal skill. The whole episode was a real-life confirmation of the effectiveness of a verbal environment for building language skills. We could hear it with our own ears.

(There are now many apps on which you can record digital files for free. Consider allowing your children to read their favorite books aloud and send those files to friends and family.)