Should Kids Should Not Be Read To?
The story of Ben Carson also came to mind. Ben Carson is a prominent pediatric neurosurgeon at John Hopkins who made news 20 years ago when he leads the team that successfully separated Siamese twins joined in the head. He was raised by a single mom who took him and his brother to the library frequently and had them read to her. She never read to them. They both turned out to be well accomplished in their chosen career paths. They were not aware at the time that their mom would not read to them because she was illiterate.
My mom has a college degree but chose to have me read to her instead. I started out reading out letters of the alphabet, then short words, then longer words and sentences. If I asked for the meaning of the word, she made me get out of an Oxford dictionary and taught me how to look it up. She made me read aloud food labels, recipes as she cooked, newspapers, billboards, just about anything in print she could lay her hands or eyes on.
She bought me books too, plenty of them. I doubt if she knew she was going against the grain by not reading to me but somehow it worked. I developed a level of comfort around the written word early in life that served me well.
So if reading to your kids is an unpleasant chore for you don’t sweat it, get them reading to you instead and you will be bound to raise a reader still.
Bola Ajumobi is a mom of 2 boys under 5 and wife to another under 40. She is a literacy advocate and owns an online kids bookstore, SlimyBookworm.com where you will find an array of books for kids but somehow still finds time to function as a family physician some of the time.
Additional article: Children Teach Themselves to Read, Psychology Today.
To examine any of the items listed, please click on image of item. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Follow PragmaticMom’s board Multicultural Books for Kids on Pinterest.
Follow PragmaticMom’s board Children’s Book Activities on Pinterest.
My books:
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World
- Junior Library Guild Gold selection
- Massachusetts Book Award Long List
- Selected as one of 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023 by dPICTUS and featured at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair
- Starred review from School Library Journal
- Chicago Library’s Best of the Best
- 2023 INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist
- Green Earth Book Award Long List
- Imagination Soup’s 35 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 for Kids
Amazon / Barefoot Books / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Scholastic / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Interesting. I do read to my son. At 10, he still doesn’t like to go to sleep without someone reading to him and it puts him to sleep. (Is that a good thing or a bad thing? LOL) He is not a great reader. He likes it in theory, but not in practice. Sometimes I worry that I am making him a lazy reader by reading to him, yet I appreciate the fact that he enjoys a good story.
My mom read to me up to a point, then I read to myself, voraciously. But I was a whole lot more independent than my son from Day One. My mom was also a whole lot more hands-off than I am. In some ways that was a good thing; in some ways I wished she had been more involved. I guess there is no one right way to parent!
To Dee,
And of course, doing both is great and works well too! Reading to kids and having them read independently.
Really interesting, love the doctor story!
I read to my kids a lot. My daughter is a very early reading but actually don’t think they correlated especially since my son, while only 4 doesn’t seem to be following suit. I do it because my fondest memories were of my mom reading to me plus I love kids books.
To Ann,
I also think that one can do both! It’s not an either/or proposition.
I love that you posted this Mia, because nothing in life is clear cut.
For some families reading aloud may simply not work, but this is not the end of the world. In fact, it may empower kids in a different way.
Enjoyed reading it!
Read Aloud Dad
Hi Read Aloud Dad,
I’m glad you enjoyed the article and kudos to you for being so open minded because I know how much your twins have benefited by your commitment to read to them! I know my kids love being read aloud to, even now and my youngest is 8-years-old. But I can also see how not reading aloud makes a child motivated to read a book for himself or herself. Perhaps a combination is good too!