Parents urged to read with their children

Parents should encourage their children to read by reading with them for 30 minutes everyday. “Read for enjoyment to your child and with your child,” said Barbara Gilles, a teacher from Tanapag Elementary School.

In her talk with the Parents Teachers Association of Tanapag Elementary School, she urged members to give up lunch one day a week to do community service by adopting a child, making him/her a reading partner at school.

As the computer and internet have made rereading and information possible for everyone worldwide, President Clinton emphasized that reading is the most important skill one can have.

In fact, she underscored the need for parents to be part of the child’s learning team by reading with them everyday from birth.

In August 1996, President Clinton invited every American to join his America Reads Challenge to help more children read well and independently by the end of the third grade.

A book entitled Read With Me published by the Washington Reading Corps identified some checkpoints for Progress developed to help teachers and learning partners to identify what most children can do in reading and writing by developmental periods — birth to 36 months, three and four years of age, and third, sixth, ninth and twelfth grades – and what most children can read by grade level.

As a newborn, the child listens and reacts to your voice and other sounds and expresses feelings by cooing, gurgling, smiling and crying. By eight months, the child plays with sounds, babbles and uses sounds to communicate.

When the child reaches 36 months, he/she listens well to stories being read and likes to play pretend games, loves to ask why questions, enjoys naming objects and makes scribbles that look more like writing.

Children three and four years of age already knows the alphabet sound and plays with word and make up silly words. The child takes turns speaking in a conversation and can talk about things that happened and make up stories. At the same time, the child starts to understand the connection between the spoken and written words.

At the kindergarten stage, the students already developing reading skills and understands the concept of a letter and word, recognizes that words are made up of combination of letters and “reads” his or her written words to others.

Most kindergarten students understand that print conveys meaning and letters of the alphabet and says the alphabet aloud, follows the text with his or her finger while reading and tries to sound out unfamiliar words while reading aloud.

It is also at this stage when the student talks about books and stories, asks and answer simple questions about what he or she reads or heard, has favorite books and stories and compares stories to personal experiences.