Read 20 Minutes Each Day!
At the Tennessee Literacy Coalition, our mission is to assist the 1 in 8 Tennesseans who can’t read this sentence. But what can we do to prevent the need for assistance in the first place? There are countless data proving that reading to your child 20 minutes a day, and then, later in childhood, having your child read independently for 20 minutes each day, will set her course for success. According to www.k12reader.com, reading improves listening skills, builds early literacy skills, improves academic performance and prepares children to reach their full potential. Dr. Sally Shaywitz, neuroscientist, states in her book, Overcoming Dyslexia, that if a child reads 20 minutes per day, she will gain 1.8 million words per year.
Did you get that?
1.8 MILLION WORDS PER YEAR
Incredible. What an advantage our children would have in school!
Staff researched these findings and found it clear that the early years set the stage for later academic success. A child who is read to early in life will have a higher likelihood of decoding the text when reading independently later in school, leading to success in elementary school, excellence in high school and greater college preparedness. We can infer that the higher the frequency of reading to a child early in life, the more likely that child is to be able to “decode” or recognize letter-sound correspondences.
The Tennessee Literacy Coalition works hard to assist the 28.1% of adults living in poverty within our state who may not have achieved these important reading skills early in life. Research proves that prevention is key and that reading 20 minutes a day to your child and then having your child read independently for 20 minutes each day will set the course for success as adults.
Facts:
- “Research reveals that the return (on investment) are highest from the early years of schooling when children are first learning to read… The early years set the stage for later learning. Without the ability to read, excellence in high school and beyond is unattainable.” Richard C. Anderson, Elfrieda H. Hiebert, Judith A. Scott, and Ian A. G. Wilkinson, Becoming a Nation of Readers: the Report of the Commission on Reading (Champaign-Urbana, IL:Center for the Study of Reading, 1985). Visit http://www.readingfoundation.org/reading_research.jsp for more information.
- Dr. Sally Shaywitz, neuroscientist, states in her book Overcoming Dyslexia that if a child read 20 minutes per day, she will gain 1.8 million words per year. Overcoming Dyslexia: A New and Complete Science-Based Program for Reading Problems at Any Level by Sally Shaywitz, M.D.
- “Decodable text provides a scaffolding of alphabetic principles as it includes a high percentage of phonetically regular words comprised of taught letter-sound correspondences…” Jennifer P. Cheatham, Jill H. Allor. The influence of decoability in early reading text on reading achievement: a review of the evidence, Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011. From this, we can infer that the higher the frequency of reading to a child early in life, the more likely they are to recognize letter-sound correspondences.
- According to the article, What Recent Reviews Tell Us About the Efficacy of Reading Interventions for Struggling Readers in the Early Years of Schooling (Meree Reynolds, K. Wheldall & A. Madelaine. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education. Vol 58, Issue 3. 2011. Pp 257-286), “a significant percentage of students experience difficulty” when entering the school system. It is thought that 33% of young children will struggle with reading skills. Also, they found that, according to the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 20% of young children experience reading problems before third grade and determined “that many young students struggle to acquire basic reading skills that are taught in the early years of schooling.”