ABSTRACT
The most obvious use of reading aloud is as a means of entertainment. Occasionally actors or other notable people will read stories or poetry in public performances. However, its most frequent uses are in the home, where parents read stories to young children, and in schools or libraries, where professionals share literature with students and young patrons. Aside from its entertainment value, there is much greater benefit to be derived from adults reading to children. An abundance of research over the past 40 years confirms the educational value of the practice (Galda & Cullinan, 1991; McCormick, 1977; Short, 1995, pp. 75-89, 111-116). Children who are read to frequently in the preschool years come to school with a leg up on literacy development. Initially, the benefit of listening to stories read is that it has a profound influence on their oral language development. A
child’s phonological range, complexity of sentence structure, and receptive and expressive vocabulary are significantly affected when children are read to on a regular basis (Burroughs, 1970; Cazden, 1965; Chomsky, 1972; Fodor, 1966; Irwin, 1960; Ninio & Bruner, 1973). Moreover, researchers have exposed a critical link between reading aloud by preschool caregivers and a child’s later success in learning to read (Clark, 1976; Durkin, 1966; Sostarich, 1974; Thorndike, 1973; Wells, 1986). One researcher notes the unique impact of parents’ reading aloud on the reading achievement of a child born with severe genetic disabilities (Butler, 1980).
