August 7, 2003

Book 'em
Encouraging a Lifetime of Reading

Charlie Brown, the cartoon character, bemoaning the fact that school is starting again in a few weeks and he hasn't begun his required reading for the summer, observes, "School time doesn't 'roll around,' it leaps right out at you."

Well, here we are approaching the middle of August and, indeed, school time will be leaping out at kids all over the nation sooner rather than later. For many young people that does mean finally getting cracking on the required reading list, after having devoured Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. For others, it means trying to eek out a little bit more fun and entertainment from each day.

Summer vacations are hard things to give up and in talking to hundreds of adults, it's one of the things they miss most about being a kid. The sense of having complete choice (or as near as possible) over what one does and how one spends one's time is almost irresistible.

As Comden and Green wrote in their lyrics for Peter Pan, "I don't want to grow up. I don't want to wear a tie. Or a serious expression. In the middle of July." There is something that we as a culture have romanticized about seemingly limitless free time, released from the structure and stricture of school. The last thing anyone wants to do is spend that time doing something that's (ick) educational.

But without the reality of school, could one appreciate the earned freedom of summer vacation? Peter Pan ultimately grows weary of his eternal boyhood, and even the archetypal American boy, Huck Finn, can't really appreciate his freedom without the adults in his life who will see to it that he's "sivillized," Even Shakespeare observes, "If all the year were playing holidays, to sport would be as tedious as to work."

So by this point, I guess it's obvious who's been doing his summer reading, and an eclectic list it's been, too. The thing is: while these days I may not be climbing trees or figuring out how to blow things up using just stuff lying around the garage, one of the immutable summer pleasures that one never needs to give up is summer reading. There is nothing quite like the pleasure of being curled up with a wonderful book on a summer's day and disappearing (metaphorically, of course) into another world, another time, another life. It is a pleasure that can last a lifetime, and there is an ever-growing body of research that shows kids who actively read - even when it's not required - equip themselves to do better in school, and the benefits begin the moment the child starts.

Reading for pleasure, however, is an acquired habit, and I'm pleased to note that many kids are acquiring it. More and more kids are requesting gift cards from Barnes & Noble or Border's for their birthdays, and the success of series like The Magic Treehouse, A Series of Unfortunate Events and the A-to-Z Mysteries, not to mention Harry Potter, attest to the fact that many children love to read and do so independently.

At the same time, there is deep concern expressed in the media and by individual parents about reading levels, proficiency and children being ready to read by the time they enter school. Parents consistently express their fear that a child who is not reading by the time he or she enters Kindergarten will never make much of his or her life. (Most kids who haven't been reading by the time they enter school catch up with their earlier reading peers relatively quickly.)

Toymakers in recent years have been swift to capitalize on this with a wide range of products that promote phonics, basic reading skills and more of the fundamentals. Many of these are quite wonderful.

Certainly, LeapFrog's LeapPad system has engaged millions of children in reading - many at an earlier age than ever before. Fisher-Price has introduced what it calls the PowerTouch System that similarly engages kids in books using finger touching rather than a stylus to negotiate through the books. At the same time, there are all manner of products that are designed to reinforce phonics skills and make the learning of phonics into a game. These products are supported by all kinds of studies that are designed to reassure parents of their effectiveness and allow them to believe that children who use them will be more likely to get into Harvard than children who do not.

As valid as these studies seem, despite their essentially promotional nature, and as effective and engaging as these products are (and we've seen many of them swiftly become individual children's favorite toys), there is one element that is absolutely essential for their effectiveness - and it's not sold separately. What's required is the active and ongoing involvement of a parent or caregiver in the process.

Ultimately, no matter how engaging it is, a machine cannot teach a child to read. People teach children to read. The marvelous products available today use breakthrough technologies to reinforce skills and learning, but they cannot impart them. For information to be meaningful to a child, it requires a context created by interaction.

Does this mean that parents have to be with kids all the time while they're playing with these toys? Certainly not. Reading experts say that simple adult-child interaction around reading activities even only a few times a week can promote better skills development and reinforce reading as both a value and a fun way to spend time. Talking about what young children are reading, or even talking about the pictures in a book for children who do not yet read on their own, can be highly effective at developing complete language skills that include reading and speaking. Playing games around a phonics toy, for example, can add a great deal of value to that toy as you ask a child things like, "What do you see in this room that has the same sounds?" Transferring information into a relevant application for a child is how information becomes learning.

Reading experts also agree that reading aloud to children - even after they can read for themselves - can help both listening and language skills. Asking children to read aloud to you can also be very effective at helping young people reinforce their skills and feel more confident about reading.

Most importantly, reading experts say, children who live in homes where the adults are readers are virtually always better readers themselves. As a parent, simply modeling reading as a behavior is very persuasive. Oh, and don't worry too much about what your kids are reading - within reason and consistent with your values - if your child wants to read technical manuals or adventure stories, history or even comic books (we call them "graphic books" now), that's fine. You can encourage children to try things that you've liked as well to expand their horizons, and many parents tell us they can't wait for their children to be old enough to read certain books that they loved as children.

While many parents intellectually understand this, they often tell us they don't know how to go about doing this. It can be as simple as picking up a book yourself, but here are a few more specific ideas for making reading part of the fun for what's left of your summer for you and your kids:

* Create family reading time. Everyone is together in the same room, but reading things they want to read independently. Some families choose to discuss what they're reading, others don't. It's your call.

* Read aloud to children - even if they are of reading age. Experts suggest that reading books to children that might be slightly above their independent reading level can be a very effective tool for helping kids to increase their abilities.

* Listen to books on tape, particularly on car trips. This is a good way to while away some hours of long highway driving, but it can be a complete family activity.

* Allow children to stay up past their bedtime - as long as what they're doing is reading. Flashlights under the covers should be encouraged - a cherished memory for many adult readers.

The benefits of these reading practices go far beyond school performance. Children who read regularly are more resourceful and less likely to be lonely. They are more adept at expressing themselves and are exposed to all kinds of information and vocabulary that they wouldn't get from watching TV or interacting with other children.. In fact, one of the charming conceits of the Lemony Snicket books (A Series of Unfortunate Events), which are beloved by legions of today's children, is that the author will introduce a word that might be beyond a child's reading level, define it in a way the child can understand, and then use it again. Experts also say that children who read regularly express more confidence in school, are more adept at problem solving and other essential intellectual skills and even handle themselves better in social situations.

And, unlike climbing up on Mrs. Horogan's garage with your friend Nina and bellowing to the kids below that everyone who wants to be in your club has to do what you say all summer long (don't ask; it was a long time ago), reading is something that you can do for a lifetime. Best of all, it never stops being both fun and good for you.

But why don't you let the kids discover that for themselves.