The Art of Reading Aloud

Being read to is a pleasurable experience no matter what your age. Reading aloud also turns out to be one of the most important things we can do to help kids develop. Here’s why and how to do it right.

Why Read Aloud
Reading to kids helps them grow their vocabularies, expand their knowledge about the world, and improve their writing skills—and become better readers themselves.

Infants especially benefit from being read to and will soon begin to associate reading time with comfort. As they grow into toddlers, they learn to listen better and start to identify the symbols that we call letters and the ways in which those letters are arranged on a page. In other words, they’re laying down the foundation they will need for a lifetime of reading.

Beyond the parental bonding and the literacy skills reading aloud reinforces, there’s another not-so-secret benefit: it’s enjoyable. “It’s just so incredibly fun,” says Judy Freeman, author of Books Kids Will Sit Still For 3: A Read-Aloud Guide. “We need stories in our lives; we need to connect with other humans. It’s what makes us human.”

How to Read Aloud
You and your child are snuggled up in a chair, ready to open up a new book. As you start to read, you’ll probably remember how your parents read to you—how they changed the cadence and the volume of their voice, made sound effects, or had each character speak in a distinct way. These are not small matters. How you read aloud is as important as what you read.

“Read with expression,” Freeman says. “If you read with a monotone, your kids will too…And ask questions, but not too many questions. This shouldn’t be an intellectual pursuit. It should be a bonding pursuit.”

Listening is a skill your kids need to learn and practice, so don’t fret if their attention wavers after a few minutes. “An hour of reading is a huge amount for most people,” says Jim Trelease, author of The Read-Aloud Handbook. “For a beginning reader, or someone who doesn’t find much pleasure in it, keep it to ten to fifteen minutes.”

What Books are Best?
The basic rule for selecting a book to read aloud is the same as it is in selecting any book for your child: Find developmentally appropriate books of good quality. Expose your kids to all genres, writing styles, topics, authors, and characters. Now and then experiment with higher-level books that introduce new subjects and harder vocabulary, but move on if you sense that your listener is frustrated or distracted. Don’t rely strictly on lists of award-winning books. “I am not convinced the Caldecott and Newbery books are the place to start,” says Carolyn “Tunie” Munson-Benson, author of Playful Reading: Positive, Fun Ways to Build the Bond Between Preschoolers, Books, and You. “No one ‘best book’ is good for all kids.” In fact, some dialogue-heavy books are hard to follow when read aloud.

For more ideas, check out our list of Great Books to Read Aloud.

Should Kids Read Aloud?
Having kids read out loud lets them work on their fluency—the ability to decipher text with speed, precision, comprehension, and proper expression. Still, reading aloud to kids is more important than having them read to you. “Kids listen at a different level than they read on,” Trelease says. “They can comprehend words they can’t read yet.”

When kids listen to a fluent reader, they pick up cues as to how intonation can affect meaning and how words are pronounced—cues they can mimic when they practice reading aloud themselves. So while there’s certainly no harm in having them read to you, don’t forget, Trelease says, “the amount you read to the child is going to bear greater fruit than what the child is reading to you.”

Till What Age?
No one is really too old to be read to. “On the most elemental level, continuing to read aloud teaches our children that you value reading and you expect them to, too,” says read-aloud advocate Rebecca Otis. “This is the largest predictor of future readers.”

Yet, by the time kids are in middle school, most parents have stopped reading aloud. “One of the dangers of school,” Trelease says, “is that you start to associate reading with sweat—threats and pain, suffering, evaluation, grades, work. That’s a bad connection to make.”

Not only does reading aloud to an older child help reinforce the
pleasures of reading outside the stresses of school, it gives families another opportunity to connect. If reading a whole book doesn’t make sense for your family, try reading interesting snippets from newspaper or magazine articles. The more young readers are reminded of the importance of reading, the more likely they will continue reading on their own for the pure pleasure of it.