Children whose parents read to them regularly have better comprehension of text. As parents read to their children, they spend time discussing the pictures, the actions of the characters and the meaning of the text. This activity encourages children to ask questions and use inference while reading. These two high-level comprehension skills help children to understand the events in a story.
Reading aloud to children helps build vocabulary and encourages language development, according to Reading Rockets. Children benefit more from reading with their parents if the children ask and answer questions, discuss the events as they unfold during the story and make predictions about what will happen next. This approach allows children to listen to new vocabulary words and to practice using those words in speech, which builds their language skills.
Reading aloud to children teaches them about print concepts. As children track the print with their parents, they learn that text is read from left to right, that there are spaces between words, and that sentences begin with capital letters and end with punctuation marks. They also learn the parts of a book such as the front cover, the back cover, the title and the author's name. Most importantly, children learn that the meaning of the story is expressed through written words.
Reading Rockets defines fluency as being able to read with expression and accuracy. This is an important part of learning to read. Early readers tend to read choppily and without expression. This habit can cause issues with comprehension down the road as the reading material becomes more complex. Parents who read to their children provide a fluency model. By listening to their parents read, children learn that reading should sound like natural speech.
Human beings do the things they enjoy and avoid the things that they dislike. Children who enjoy reading will read, while children who dislike reading will avoid it. Reading skills only improve with practice, so children who do not enjoy reading quickly fall behind the other children. When parents read aloud to their children, the children learn to associate reading with a pleasurable activity.