RUNNING HEAD: AFFECTS OF EARLY READING ON CHILDREN Morales 1

Effects of Reading on Children

Edson Morales

Waxahachie Global High School

AFFECTS OF EARLY READING ON CHILDREN Morales 2

Table of Contents

Abstract3

Introduction..4

Teaching...4

Benefits of Early Reading5

Early Reading and How It Affects Intelligence...6

Genetics and Environment...6

Reading Aloud.7
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Abstract

They are many different reasons to have a child read before they even start school, ranging from

wanting your child to be ahead in school to simply wanting your child to be a better student.

And there's many more different ways of teaching them how to read. Then there's the fact of how

their environment and genetics can affect them, fortunately their environment is the bigger factor.

Exposing children to reading is one of the most crucial things you can do if you want to help a

child to become a solid reader. One such exposure method is reading aloud to a child.
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Depending on how a child is taught at an early age can easily and will affect how they are

able to learn in the future. So it is important to teach children the right way before they began to

mack habits of their mistakes. As well to do what is possible for the child to ensure academic

success from the very beginning and to create habitats that allow them to be successful.

Fortunately there are different teaching methods that can be used to start academic success. A Lot

of ways that can help ensure future success for children is through their environment and how

they learn in their environment. One better way of explaining this is that there's a benefit of

simply reading out loud to a children and telling them stories of the world around them.

Teaching

There are many different approaches to teach children on how to read. My favorite way is

through phonics. Instead of teaching them the words and the sounds of each separate words.

They learn each different sound of letter, most of the letters in the English alphabet have multiple

different sounds to them, and the combinations of those letters. In some cases theres different

alphabet used to teach, this alphabet slightly changes the way the letters look so the student

knows how to pronounce the word. After being taught this method for a period of time, they stop

using this alphabet and use the normal alphabet. There is also no need to teach the name of each

letter as this will most harm the students ability to learn how to read with this method. This

method is starting to become more popular.

The look and say method is the opposite of the phonics method as the student learnt

complete words instead of learning the individual sounds. There's a major drawback to this

method because the students will start to confuse the different sounding words with others as

they think the words with similar looking spelling sound the same. The language experience
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method is typically used for younger children as it uses pictures and words the students already

knows. There is not much to this method so it can not be used after a short period of time.

The reason for explaining the different ways to teach a child how to read is because

depending on how you teach it either positively or negatively affect a child for a long period of

time. For example, if a child is taught incorrectly they may believe they can not read but if they

are taught exceptionally they will continue reading at a higher level. No one wants to teach

children how to read incorrectly either.

Benefits of Early Reading

More pluses are that the child has an increased attention span, better concentration, and

better memory retention (teachreadingearly.com). Early reading can help create a lifelong reader.

Proficiency in reading enables children to comprehend more of what they are reading, but they

have to be taught how to use reading strategies in order to pick out the necessary information

from the subject matter, so that they are able to understand the material and excel in academics.

If a child starts reading right before they start school then there is no pressure put on them, at

least it should be that way, because school has not started for them. And you are able to control

the rate of the reading, if you wanted to. Those who are exposed to reading are much more likely

to choose books over video games and television and in the future they do not see reading as an

annoying chore but something that they can enjoy, hence why they choose reading over other

things.

Another reason to teach reading at an early age helps, it can help develop the younger

childs brain and children learn at a much faster pace is and a higher aptitude for learning in

general. (earlymoments.com) Early reading can also allow for a better grasp of the fundamentals

of language. This forms a basis for learning and reading much later into their lives. For example,
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children learn to speak from just being around their parents and listening to them speaking

during their first years. This is also an example of learning in their environment. After their first

years it becomes increasingly more difficult to learn a new language. In both the cases of

language and reading it leaves a profound impact in their lives and even into adulthood.

Simply teaching a child to read does more for them than you think. The child is learning

critical language and enunciation skills while they learn how to read. There have been multiple

studies that have shown that students who are exposed to reading before preschool are more

likely to do well in school. (earlymoments.com)

Early Reading and How It Affects Intelligence

Early remediation of reading problems might aid not only the growth of literacy, but

also more general cognitive abilities that are of critical importance across the lifespan.

(medicaldaily.com) Early reading has been shown to affect a persons intelligence and their

intellectual development. Many factors are responsible for this including their experiences and

environment. The Twins Early Developmental Study is a longitudinal study in the United

Kingdom that tracked 1,890 identical twins. They were trying to find a correlation between early

reading and improved IQ. The researchers of this study had found that reading during childhood

affected their intelligence later into their lives. Reading was associated with verbal intelligences

and nonverbal intelligence (medicaldaily.com) If, as our results imply, reading causally

influences intelligence Children who dont receive enough assistance in learning how to read

may also be missing out on the important intelligence-boosting properties if literacy.

Genetics and Environment

Many children are exposed to reading, some more than others. Depending on how much

their home environment exposes them to reading, the more likely they are to be ahead of their
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classmates. For example, if two students start to learn how to read at the same time, the student

more exposed to reading at home will learn at faster rate than the other student. From personal

experience the students who are more exposed learned at faster rate than those who are not. Not

being exposed to reading at an early does not necessarily put the child at a disadvantage. Another

factor of this is that a child may be more interested in the topic than the other, causing them to

want to be ahead and a love for learning. Thus creating better grades in most subjects and giving

them the experience of academic success.

While genetics is also a factor in a childs initial reading ability. Another study of twins

has shown that the environment of children is another factor for reading. This study, which is on

the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, also provides evidence that early reading helps

children. But this study does focuses on their environment and genetics. The study is also one of

the first to show how their environment and genetics affects how quickly or slowly a childs

reading ability increases over time. Though when the researchers started to measure growth in

reading skills, the environment was much more important. Regardless of where children start as

far as reading skills, and the impact that genetics and environment had on their initial skills, we

found that their environment had an impact in how fast or how slowly those reading skills

developed. (Sciencedaily.com) The environment is more than just instruction in school, it

includes their home, family, and what happens around them. Genetics had only shown to be a

small reason, compared to the environment, as to why children reading ability affects them.

Reading Aloud

Reading aloud is one of the important things that lead to language development. Reading

aloud helps build and build word-sound awareness in children, which helps with reading success
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in the future. Reading aloud to young children is one of the best ways to stimulate language and

cognitive skills. (reachoutandread.org) Research has shown that the more words a parent uses

when speaking to an 8-month-old infant, the greater the size of their child's vocabulary at the age

of 3. (reachoutandread.org) Reading aloud is a technique that can help children cope during

times of stress or tragedy. Reading aloud in the first years exposes children to story and rare

words and ideas not often found in day-to-day conversations or even on television.
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References

Teaching Your Child to Read. (n.d.). Retrieved January 13, 2017, from

http://www.teachreadingearly.com/

Iyer, S. (2014, July 24). The Secret To Boosting Your Child's IQ May Lie In Strong Early Reading

Skills. Retrieved January 13, 2017, from http://www.medicaldaily.com/strong-early-reading-skills-

children-yields-higher-intelligence-later-helps-more-general-cognitive

ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2017.

"Teaching Treasures." Context Support Method. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2017.

Anastasia Elgina, Dominican Hospital Pediatric Clinic, California, and - Trude Haecker, M.D.,

Medical Director, Reach Out and Read of Greater Philadelphia. "Importance of Reading Aloud."

Importance of Reading Aloud | Reach Out and Read. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2017.

"10 Reasons Why You Should Read to Your Kids." Earlymoments.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Jan.

2017.