Parents and caregivers reading aloud to children is perhaps one of the most beneficial activities for children’s development.
Research involving brain scans shows that hearing stories strengthens the part of the human brain associated with visualization, story comprehension and word meaning.
The U.S. Department of Education created its first Commission on Reading to explore the reading decline in the 1980s. Its 1985 report, “Becoming a Nation of Readers,” found “The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children” and suggested that “[reading aloud] is a practice that should continue throughout the grades.”
Kindergarten-age children who are read to at least three times a week have a “significantly greater phonemic awareness than did children who were read to less often,” according to the report.
More recent studies have found that reading strengthens children’s social, emotional and character development. Reading to very young children is linked to decreased levels of aggression, hyperactivity and attention difficulties, presumably because children learn communication skills that decrease their frustration during the key period in early childhood development when they are learning the basics about how to communicate rather than articulating this behavior through physical action.
New York University School of Medicine associate professor of pediatrics, Dr. Alan Mendelsohn, told the New York Times in 2018 that “When parents read with their children more … [the children] learn to use words to describe feelings that are otherwise difficult and this enables them to better control their behavior when they have challenging feelings like anger or sadness.”
Our 20-month-old daughter, Athena, has a massive collection of books. We started buying them before she was born and were given books as gifts by her grandparents and our friends. At our house, Athena has to pass through our library between the living room and bedroom so I know that she’s always equating “books” with “home.”
My wife and I read books to her nightly — partly because we enjoy it and partly because Athena demands it.
For instance, when she calls for “shark,” it’s any book about sharks or fish, while “sta wa” means she wants a book about a young person from a backwater desert world destined to become a Jedi.
For us, books are a means to cuddle and bond while looking at pictures, telling a story and asking Athena to help by pointing at colors or shapes or animals on the pages.
While we have the benefit of lots of books, many children in our community do not. That’s where the Verde Valley Imagination Library comes in. The book program is part of Dolly Partons’ Imagination Library.
Parton’s father was illiterate and she was one of 12 children and helped raise her younger siblings. The country singer started the nonprofit in 1995 to mail age-appropriate books to children every month between birth and age 5. These are often children who may not have access to books or whose parents many not have the funds to buy them.
More than 120 million books have been mailed to children for free over the last 25 years, including 1,975 children in the Verde Valley.
Verde Valley First Books provides books to school classrooms and brings in volunteers to read to children.
On Sunday, Feb. 23, the Verde Valley Imagination Library will host the Blazin’ For Books fundraiser at the Blazin’ M Ranch in Cottonwood. Tickets cost $50 and include a chuckwagon dinner, entertainment, raffle, a live auction and a silent auction.
It only costs donors $30 a year to benefit a local child through the Verde Valley Imagination Library, so even if you cannot attend the fundraiser, you can assist by sending a donation to the Imagination Library.
For more information, visit vvilbooks.com.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
