Jim Trelease and Reading Aloud

Jim Trelease, author of The Read-Aloud Handbook, is convinced that reading aloud to students helps students develop vocabulary skills, improves their reading level,and advances a host of other academic indicators.

Trelease advises parents to keep reading to children even after they begin reading to themselves. Reading newspaper articles to older children,he argues,is a springboard for discussion.

Duxbury,MA parent,Patti Roberts,when talking about Trelease's visit to their PTA group, explained that "reading aloud helps lengthen children's attention span."It builds vocabulary by exposing children to richer language. Their listening vocabulary expands first, helping them to recognize words in conversation and to eventually use them. Studies show that reading is linked to success in all other academic areas,including science and math.
In his handbook Trelease writes that screen time is too passive to promote academic development. Watching television excludes the child from active participation and feeds things at a rate that brain cells are unable to process.Parents,Trelease said,should count both video and computer time when they calculate how much screen time their children are getting every day.

Indeed the saying "read aloud,feed a mind" rings true and provides parents a way to aid their children to read for pleasure as well as for knowledge.

Links

• Book Pals-Screen Actors Guild
  Many actors and actresses read picture books to the viewing audience.