A Reason to Read

By Julie Douglas

I can’t imagine a day without books. Maybe the fact that I share a birthday with Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel, caused me to be crazy about books. But I doubt it. My love of books probably has more to do with growing up in a home where my parents read to me. The Cat in the Hat and Mother Goose were frequent guests at our house. We often raced along with the fast-driving canine in GO DOG GO. (My brother is now a huge NASCAR fan. Coincidence? I don’t think so.) My siblings and I learned to count with ONE FISH, TWO FISH, RED FISH, BLUE FISH. We giggled at (and probably tried to imitate) the antics of Curious George. I joined in countless adventures with The Box Car Children. My favorite family outing was going to the public library and coming home with a stack of books. I have to admit, my heart still skips a beat when I enter a library.

Experts point to a host of reasons we should read to our young children. Psychologists are convinced that reading to babies contributes significantly to brain development. A baby’s eyes are strengthened by focusing on pictures in a book. He learns language skills by playing with the sounds and repetitive language that he hears in poems and stories. Wrapped in the rhymes and rhythms of a picture book, baby and parent bond. Educators tell us that children who are read to before starting school are more successful in learning to read. As a former teacher, I know that to be true. Children who have been read to come to school equipped with longer attention spans, a better grasp of the complexities of language, and more refined listening skills. Reading to young children is of so much benefit that many pediatricians now prescribe reading to babies as part of the information they give to new parents.

These reasons make a very compelling case for reading aloud to young children. But to my mind, the most important reason to read to our children is much more organic. Reading to a young child increases the likelihood that the child is going to grow up loving books. A love of books leads to a love of learning. A love of books opens one’s mind to new ideas and experiences, to other cultures, to other ways of looking at the world. A love of books encourages creative thinking, self-examination, and a feeling of being connected to the rest of the human race. When we open a book with a child, we literally open the world to him. And that, in my opinion, is the best reason of all to read to a child.