When Should Reading Aloud Stop?

In my last post, I gave the illustration of when a baby is born the parents immediately begin talking to him even though he cannot understand what they are saying.  The baby feels a sense of security and soon learns to enjoy hearing the parent's voice.  The same, we said, is true with reading aloud. The earlier reading aloud is begun with a child the sooner they will develop a love for reading and books.

Now that we have established when reading aloud should begin, let's answer the question, "When is my child too old for me to read aloud to him?"  The answer, "NEVER!!!!!"   When a child learns to talk the parents do not stop talking to him because he can now talk on his own. No, in fact, the amount of talking becomes even greater because now the child can participate in the activity.  The child soon learns to enjoy talking with his parent and wants to do it all the time!! :)  The same is true with reading aloud. 

Just because your child or student knows how to read on his own does not mean that you should never read to him.  Reading aloud is an advertisement for the joy of reading.  A company does not stop advertising when people start buying its product. It continues to advertise to keep its product before the people.  If we, as parents or teachers, stop reading to our children because they can now do it on their own, there is a greater risk that they will not do it on their own.  They are not being reminded on a consistent basis that reading is fun.  Good books are not being brought to their attention by being read to them.

I've already stated in one of my posts that the evenings when my mom would get out a book and read to us were some of my favorite memories from growing up.  I remember one time, when I was in college, life got a bit hectic for me.  One evening, when I was feeling particularly stressed,  I got a book of short stories, took it to my mom and asked her to read to me.  She did and I felt much better after spending time listening to her read aloud. 

Could I have read those stories on my own? Of course!  However, because my mom had taken the time to read aloud to me all my life I felt it was the one thing that would put my world back in order!  A good book has always given me a cozy, peaceful feeling. Why? Because I associate it with those warm cozy evenings of sitting around listening to my mom read.

If you have little ones in your house, start reading to them on a consistent basis.  If you have older children in your house, keep reading to them and never stop until they are out of your home.  High School teacher, if your class permits, take the time to read to your students.  When I was a librarian for four years, my junior high and high school students would act as if they didn't care when I was reading to them, but when I didn't take the time to read, they let me know they wanted me to!! 

For those of you who may have grade school or older students or children in your home and you have not begun yet to read aloud to them, let me say, it is also NEVER too late to start!  Start it NOW and NEVER quit!! Happy Reading!!