“It’s never too early to read to your children even if they can’t understand a single syllable.”-Anonymous
There have been many stories about why students fail, why they cannot provide correct answers to questions given even in exams, and why they can also not understand the questions given.
Researchers have been able to understand and unveil the fact that the problem is not far from the fact that many of our pupils and students do not know how to read and so it becomes a case of no reading, no understanding. Research made available by USAID is of the opinion that reading must be made functional between classes 1-3.
They also state that one can develop speech naturally but cannot read and write naturally until the individual has been taught, and it is often expected that 45 words per minute should be the minimum for minimal understanding of what has been read.
Nigerian children can hardly read up to 10 words per minute. Apart from this, the reading culture is unarguably low and as such, students do not read and cannot understand and as such, the possibility of passing is lamentably low.
It also records that the best persons to teach a child how to read remains the parents at home as the teachers can hardly have sufficient time for each pupil even though, thankfully enough, it is in the Nigerian educational curriculum.
Listening to a parent’s voice and looking at pictures helps children with bonding and development as well as aiding children’s literacy and brain development, imagination and stimulated curiosity as research is saying the earlier the better.
Reading to children creates lovely bonding moments when children sit outside in the moonlight or in the comfort of their sitting rooms as the case may be while listening to the voice of the adult and or looking at pictures as this is said and believed to make them successful later in life, especially when they are learning to read as this will help with their language and sounds development, learning colours, animals, letters and words.
Teaching children listening skills by reading to them will improve their listening skills and train them in the art of active listening.
In fact, teaching children listening skills is one of the most important traits. As adult human beings, we can help them develop for many different reasons, ranging from academic and real world success to becoming a friend and experiencing true friendship.
Think about if we aren’t talking or reading, we most likely are listening. We listen to the radio, television, friends, family, and our co-workers. But listening is something we have to do actively because “listening to” something and “hearing” something are two very different concepts. This is why teaching children listening skills is so important.
Sounds of refrigerator, microwave, barking of dogs, cries of babies, and sounds of cars are fortunate enough to break out of the rat race so that we can even enjoy the sounds of nature like birds chirping, a brook babbling, the wind blowing, or leaves rustling. But just because we have heard these sounds doesn’t mean they have registered in our brains.
The passive nature of hearing is very different from the active nature of listening. Take, for example, watching the evening news on NTA or AIT or even the international news.
Listening skills are developed, and the more we practice the more skilled we become at teaching children listening skills. Reading to children is not only a way of teaching children listening skills, it forces them to practice listening skills and it is a well known fact that children are engaging their active listening skills because of how many times older children and adults have corrected them.
We hear, “You skipped a page.” Or sometimes if I play word games with my nephews and nieces and say, “Beep! Beep! Elephants in a jeep . . . “ while reading Sheep in a Jeep. I immediately hear, “It’s not elephants, aunty. It’s sheep.” So again, I know they are actively listening to the story being read to them. So, it stands to reason that the more time we spend teaching children listening skills by reading to them, the more they practice their active listening skills and the better they become at it. In a nutshell, teaching children listening skills by reading aloud to our little ones improves their listening skills, and more importantly, their active listening skills.
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