Parents usually read to a child to help develop his/her interest in reading. But research suggests that parents reading along with their children is better than simply reading while children listen.
This theory has been the main focus at the ongoing training on ‘building literacy skills for successful reader’ in Thimphu.
Jean Ho, the Speech and Language Therapist from Singapore said reading together with a child gives room for more interaction and engagement. She also said books are not just reading the mere words typed on the page but about presenting new ideas and topics for parents and children to discuss.
Jean Ho further brought to the attention how studies reveal that pre-school phase of children are critical for them to develop reading and writing skills.
“While reading with children parents can talk about pictures on the page, then engage in conversation about the story,” said Jean Ho, adding that it deepens the child’s understanding about the theme which helps them to learn vocabularies.
Parents and facilitators of Early Childhood Care and Development Centres play vital role in helping children inculcate reading habits and that way training is very much useful for them.
“From the training, I realise that it is important for us to ask the children what they understand from the book rather than us just reading and explaining them the main essence,” said one of the ECCD facilitators, Rinchen Choden.
A parent Karma Tenzin said, “the training has given me a newfound knowledge that reading can actually widen the horizons of the child and now what I will do is I can equally engaged my son to read and understand the story of the book.”
Exposing children to wealth of books can help them grow into adults who can read easily and frequently.
