Reading begins at home
A STUDY conducted in Pakistan found out that students get motivation to read from their family – either from the parents or their siblings who study a lot at home. The research concluded that in order to promote the reading habits of students, collaboration between parents and teachers is necessary.
More and more researches and studies have already shown the importance of reading at home. In fact, reading could begin while the baby is still in the womb of the mother. As written in greenchildmagazine.com, science shows that reading to baby in the womb helps develop early language learning. One study at the University of Oregon found that when pregnant mothers were given a recording that included a made-up word to play near the end of pregnancy, the babies were able to recognize the word and its variations after they were born. They could discern this by neural signals emitted by the babies that showed they recognized the pitch and vowel changes in the fake word. The babies who heard the recording most frequently displayed the strongest response. Studies have also shown that the relaxing voice of the mother reading to her unborn causes the baby’s heart rate to calm down.
Neuroscience provides evidence that 8590 percent of brain growth occurs in the first five years of life (TCRF). MRI scans show increased brain activity in children whose parents read with them regularly (WebMD). Research also show that just 20 minutes reading time a day helps develop critical reading skills of children, and those who read the most, read the best (SMART).
A post on UW News talked about a 5-year longitudinal study by a professor of education who sent home questionnaires asking parents how they helped their children with reading and writing, and then compared the responses with the academic performances of the students (first to seventh grade). In this study, the professor found out that as the children moves up the ladder of education, the assistance (in reading and writing) from the parents decreases. The study concluded by giving tips for parents and teachers on how to work together to develop literacy and study skills such as engaging the child to write at home through journals, spelling or reading comprehension exercises or a family story.
Reading has many benefits as shown by researches and studies. However, the sad thing is that the habit of reading seem to be decreasing due to all these distractions surrounding the children e.g. television, computer games, mobile phones, social media, etc. It is therefore, important to renew the partnership between home and school in developing the reading and study habits of children through home activities that need the active involvement of family members.