12 Feb 2012 2 Comments
Study links reading to young children to improved teen literacy
Continuing with this month’s theme touting the benefits of reading aloud to your children, a report from the international Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development recently examined the long-term impact of parental support on literacy and found a strong link between reading aloud to young children and later teenage reading abilities.
It also found that things like a family dinner and quality parent/child time make a positive impact when it comes to academics.
Based on teenagers in 14 developed countries, the study found that active parental involvement during the early years of school was a significant trigger for developing children’s reading skills that would carry through until they were teenagers. On average, teenagers whose parents had read aloud to young children were at least six months ahead in reading levels at the age of 15.
Discounting social and economic differences, the study found children with early support remained ahead in reading. The report also found that parents did not have to be particularly well-educated themselves for this impact to be achieved. What was important was that parents read books regularly with their children and that they talked about what they were reading together.
This parental involvement overrode other social disadvantages and in some countries could represent more than a year’s advantage in reading levels at the age of 15 compared with children whose parents rarely read books with them.
The study, which draws on data from the international Programme for International Student Assessment tests, also found a link between teenagers’ reading skills and continued engagement with their parents. Everyday family get-togethers, where parents and children talk, could influence school performance, says the research.
“Eating meals together around the table and spending time just talking with one’s children are also associated with significantly better student reading performance in school,” says the OECD report.
1. Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo. Through the love she gains from her new pet, a girl gains the courage to ask her father about the mother who abandoned them. “In this exquisitely crafted first novel [a Newbery Honor book], each chapter possesses an arc of its own and reads almost like a short story in its completeness,” said PW in our Best Books of 2000 citation.
2. Call of the Wild by Jack London. First published in 1903, The Call of the Wild is regarded as Jack London’s masterpiece. Based on London’s experiences as a gold prospector in the Canadian wilderness and his ideas about nature and the struggle for existence, The Call of the Wild is a tale about unbreakable spirit and the fight for survival in the frozen Alaskan Klondike.
3. A Dog’s Life: Autobiography of a Dog by Ann M. Martin. Squirrel and her brother Bone begin their lives in a toolshed behind someone’s summer house. Their mother nurtures them and teaches them the many skills they will need to survive as stray dogs. But when their mother is taken from them suddenly and too soon, the puppies are forced to make their own way in the world, facing humans both gentle and brutal, busy highways, other animals, and the changing seasons. When Bone and Squirrel become separated, Squirrel must fend for herself, and in the process makes two friends who in very different ways define her fate.
5. Lad: A Dog. Lad, a courageous and dignified 80-pound collie, lived in The Place. The Place was thick with woods, abounding with squirrels to chase, and a cool lake in which to plunge — a beautiful kingdom — and Lad was its undisputed king. Lad’s loyalty to his chosen Master and Mistress knew no bounds. The stories in this book are all about Lad. Some will make you laugh out loud, some will make you cry. And when the book comes to its conclusion, you will know one thing for sure — that Lad was a dog with a soul . . .
6. Dog of Flanders by Louise de la Ramée. Thanks to the support of a loving dog that he helps nurse back to health, an aspiring young artist never gives up hope, despite being subjected to all sorts of terrible hardships.
7. Ribsy by Beverly Cleary. Henry Huggins’s dog, Ribsy, is hopelessly lost in a huge shopping mall parking lot. It’s raining hard, the pavement is slick, horns are honking, and drivers are shouting. When Ribsy thinks he has found the Hugginses’ new station wagon at last, he jumps in the open tailgate window and falls asleep, exhausted. When he wakes up find himself in the wrong car, lots of little girls pet him and make plans to give him a bath. All Ribsy wants to do is go home to Henry. Instead, he’s about to begin the liveliest adventure of his life.
8. Sheep by Valerie Hobbs. The sheep closed in around him like a big, woolly blanket. The puppy had never been so scared or so excited in his life. Soon he was racing, feinting, dodging—learning what it means to be one of the proud breed of Border collies, the finest sheepherders in the world. Then, almost overnight, his life is turned upside down. He finds himself in a series of strange places, with no sheep, his family gone. With nothing but the courage he was born with and a dream, he searches for the life he once knew, gathering names and adventures as he goes. For a short time, he’s called Blackie. To the Goat Man, he’s Shep. To Hollerin, he’s Spot. There’s one name that threatens to haunt him forever—Sparky, the name Billy the circus man calls him. But there’s another name that he is given, one that finally makes him feel at home. . . .
9. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. Enzo is a lab terrier mix plucked from a farm outside Seattle to ride shotgun with race car driver Denny Swift as he pursues success on the track and off. Denny meets and marries Eve, has a daughter, Zoë, and risks his savings and his life to make it on the professional racing circuit. Enzo, frustrated by his inability to speak and his lack of opposable thumbs, watches Denny’s old racing videos, coins koanlike aphorisms that apply to both driving and life, and hopes for the day when his life as a dog will be over and he can be reborn a man. When Denny hits an extended rough patch, Enzo remains his most steadfast if silent supporter. (Publisher’s Weekly)
10. Dog Heaven by Cynthia Rylant. A picture book for all ages. A comforting and smile-inducing poetic text speculates on the place where all good dogs go, describing Dog Heaven as a wonderful location filled with countless ham biscuits, good meals, lots of petting, and endless stretches of fields to run in.
