Reading to children can help us to build a reading culture

Those who grew up in the 1980s and earlier had the privilege of listening to their grandmothers as they regaled them with folktales.

It is from this fund of knowledge and wisdom that they gained many things: Listening skills; vocabulary, although in their respective mother tongue; information; and knowledge about life.

But the current generation has been denied this opportunity—to listen to stories, from which they can learn new words and the art of storytelling. 

Modern-day parents, however, have enormous opportunities to make up for their lack of folktales by buying interesting age-appropriate stories and reading them aloud to their children.

Indeed, this is the practice in Western and Asian countries. Children expect their parents to read to them stories every evening. And the parents enjoy doing it.

Research shows that reading aloud to children of all ages helps them to develop their writing skills. It helps pupils to develop their knowledge of language and story structure.

Children need to hear an adult use expression and tone correctly to do it. A parent should, ideally, set aside 20 minutes every day to read with their child and talk about the book even after the child has become an independent reader.

Reading to a child provides them with a greater range of ideas, which they can use in their writing, and gives them access to texts that may be too complex for them to read alone.

When reading with their child, a parent should encourage them with a lot of praise and ask them if they understand the meaning of new words.

Story review

Parents should review the story together with the child. If, for example, the book is fiction, the parent should ask questions about the plot, the storyline, and the persons in the book, otherwise called characters in the technical language of literature.

The parent may ask the child about the most dominant person in the story, their relationship with others and why they do what they do in the story.

For non-fiction books, questions can include how information is arranged on every page, ways in which the book could be improved or lessons that the reader has learnt from reading it.

Questions about whether there is any person in the book whose actions they like or dislike and why they do can also be asked. They can also give a reason(s) regarding what happens in the book.

Apart from building vocabulary and the skill of narration, they improve their reasoning powers. Reading stimulates the child’s brain to be more curious, learn faster and stay active compared to those who are not much of a reader. A crucial life skill, reading helps children to understand the world around them and guides their learning at school.

Varieties of writing and reading which children should be exposed to include fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, humour, scary, fairytale, adventure, sports, animal stories, poetry, biography, historical and mystery At school, children can continue reading by themselves. Reading for pleasure and embedding a habit of reading to children has many benefits. 

County government should set money aside and establish public libraries in sub-counties.

This year’s World Book Day, first commemorated in the UK more than 25 years ago, was on March 2. But the event passed largely unnoticed in Kenya—enough reason for cultivating a reading culture.

Ms Saina is a public communications officer, Kenya National Examinations Council (Knec). [email protected]. @Examscouncil