Reading Aloud To Raise Readers: Let's Solve The Literacy Crisis, Simply

A child can read every word on the page and still not understand what the page is saying and that’s the heart of today’s season finale. We’re responding to a literacy crisis that doesn’t only live in under-resourced schools; it shows up in thriving homes, in “fine” report cards, and in older children and teens who decides they are not readers. When reading becomes performance, measurement, and pressure, the love drains away, and the gaps in vocabulary and comprehension grow in the background.

This episode busts all the reading aloud myths that keep getting perpetuated in bookish circles and take aim at all the fixes (that don't actually fix anything) that seem to be popping up: prescribed reading minutes, endless worksheets, and reading apps that reward tapping more than thinking. 

Come listen and we can solve this growing literacy crisis... simply. 

Links to episode mentioned: 

Voices, Interruptions, and Fidgets: Mastering the Read-Aloud Experience

Why That Whoosh, Bonk, and Splat Matter More Than You Think

Creating a Home Book Club Culture: No Homework Required

Why Kids Love Spooky Stories: Science, Childhood, and Joy

From Teacher to Acclaimed Author: Roslynne Toerien's Literary Journey

If this episode shifts your thinking, subscribe, share it with a parent or teacher who needs a calmer plan, and leave a review so more families can find it. What’s one tiny read-aloud habit you’re willing to try this week?

Find us on Instagram @teatalesandtomes and don't forget to join us next time for more bookish wonder. 

Podcast music by Lundstroem (Episode 1 onwards) and Audionautix (TTAT Trailer). Podcast edited by Timothy Wiggill. 

Transcript

Season Finale With A Purpose

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello, bookish friends. This episode took a lot longer to put together than I expected. I think it's because it's one that is very, very important to me, very close to my heart, and I really wanted to do it justice. It's also the last episode of season two of Tea Tales and Homes, and unlike the previous season finale, where we went out partying like it's 1999 with a bunch of wonderful kids sending in their thoughts, today's episode is going to be less celebration and more protest. It's a response to the reading crisis unfolding all around us. A crisis that is affecting children of all ages and adults. And because this is Teetales and Homes, I'm not going to come at you with only gloom and doom. I'm also offering a solution that is the simplest thing that we can all do starting today. Let's get to it. Let's

The Reading Crisis Hiding In Plain Sight

SPEAKER_00 0:59

start with a question. How many teenagers do you know that either don't read for pleasure or don't consider themselves readers? I can tell you that most of the conversations I have with parents and teachers about reluctant readers is actually about older kids that don't read, that don't consider themselves readers. Hold that thought while I ask another question. Did you know that we are battling with a severe global literacy crisis? In South Africa, my home country, a 2021 study found that 81% of South African grade 4 to 6 learners could not read for meaning in any language. 81%. And before you picture only under-resourced rural schools with broken windows and overcrowded classrooms, here's the uncomfortable truth. This crisis stretches far beyond that. It exists in X model C or semi-private schools. It exists in elite private schools. It exists in homes filled with opportunity and privilege. How do I know? Because I've seen it firsthand. I've seen children who have learned to mask beautifully. Children who can memorize, perform, and cope just enough to move from grade to grade. Just masking. Under the education system radar, not exceptionally, just managing. Children who seem fine until they encounter a test question asking them to define, to investigate, to compare, or to evaluate. And yep, the problem isn't intelligence at all. The problem is language, vocabulary, comprehension, the ability to decode meaning from words on a page and then apply it in context. Now let's combine these two things. You have older children that don't read for pleasure, and you have a stat that says that 81% of children in grade four and above are actually struggling with basic literacy. You don't need to be a scientist to see a link here. A child can know every word in a sentence and still not understand the sentence. They can decode sounds without understanding ideas. They can appear bright, articulate, passing on grade level while carrying huge unseen gaps in comprehension. And the reasons are complex and deeply interconnected. And I don't want to waste the precious time I have with you to go into all of it when these studies are very available on any search engine. But the Cliff Notes version, access to quality stories and strong positive associations with books and reading is missing in the literacy equation. And just take note of those words. Strong positive associations. I'm gonna mention that a few times as we go through this episode.

Why Love Of Reading Matters

SPEAKER_00 3:47

So after this study was published, and the reason why I decided to do this episode, what I have seen is actually very scary. AI created posters about how many hours we quote unquote need to read to our children, how many hours children and adults need to be reading by themselves every day, more worksheets, holiday programs with more worksheets. And did I say more worksheets? More phonics lessons, more reading lessons, and more gamified reading applications. Now I know that some of you are going to come for me because I sound like I'm saying that reading instruction is not important. That is not what I am saying. Reading instruction is only part of the equation bookish friends. If you want your children to love reading, to really love learning, these things, these things are not the way. More worksheets and more instructions is not the

Reading Aloud As The Simplest Lever

SPEAKER_00 4:43

way. So what is the way? I know when I say this, I'm gonna get a few eye rolls, but bear with me and just stay to the end of this episode. I promise you, I have to start somewhere, and this is how I'm gonna start, and I know it's gonna sound like I'm being really preachy or I'm oversimplifying. But researchers have found that children who are read to daily consistently outperform peers in vocabulary, comprehension, and long-term academic outcomes. Across multiple international studies, one pattern appears again and again. Children who are regularly read allowed to develop stronger language skills, broader vocabularies, better comprehension, and higher academic achievement overall. And for me, even if we take all that away, all the performance-related academic stuff, take it all away. A reading culture at home is the simplest way to foster strong bonds with our loved ones. And Sarah McKenzie in her podcast says it best. Reading aloud is the best way to create lasting and meaningful connections with our children through books. And I mentioned earlier to take note of those three words: strong positive associations. This is the part where I will start sounding like a broken record. This podcast, Teetales and Tomes, exists because I always feel like I have too much to say about the subject and never enough time in the rushed little conversations I have with parents. Everyone, myself included, is busy. So when a parent tells me their child, little kid, or teen hates reading or only wants screens or struggles with tests or reads below their grade level, it's never the right time for a 20-minute lecture on literacy development. And so they ask me, how do your children read so much? How are they reading above grade level? How do they do so well academically? How do they choose to read a book instead of playing endlessly on the PlayStation, which they also love? And my answer is almost always the same. I read to them, I read with them. Just read to your children, read to your teens, listen to books together as a family. And I think sometimes people assume I'm oversimplifying or being facetious or hiding some secret strategy. Maybe they think reading aloud sounds lovely in theory but unrealistic in practice. Here Natasha comes again with her blue sky research. But bookish friends, I'm telling you again that the science on this is remarkably clear. Reading aloud to children is the strongest predictor of later literacy success and academic achievement. In fact, recent randomized controlled trials have shown that even relatively small increases in shared reading at home can measurably improve children's vocabulary overall, their overall vocabulary development. You know, when we read aloud, it's not just about teaching a child to read words. It's about wiring the brain for language. It's about attention, curiosity, empathy, imagination. It's about creating positive emotional associations with stories before reading ever becomes tied to marks and tests and pressure. When your child climbs onto your lap for a story, they are not just hearing words. They are absorbing rhythm, sentence structure, emotional nuance, background knowledge, vocabulary, and most importantly, human connection, and it's all happening all at once. And when an older teen listens to you read to them, the brain centers associated with all these same things are triggered. So, yes, I will say this again, and probably until the end of this podcast, reading aloud to your child is one of the most powerful things you can do for their future. Not because it guarantees a little genius, not because it magically fixes every educational challenge, but because it lays the foundation for almost everything else. Books bolt readers, readers bolt thinkers, and thinkers bold societies.

When Worksheets And Apps Backfire

SPEAKER_00 9:03

So let's get back to what I'm seeing as a response to the literacy crisis and what I think is causing stress to a lot of parents who are trying to navigate these scary times. What I've been seeing recently on social media and in academic circles and also in the entrepreneur circles, people who see a problem and think that they can create a product to fix this because there's demand, right? What I'm seeing is prescribed reading amounts, how much time you should spend reading a day with tons of AI-generated information bubbles, which for my great four child said that he should be reading for an hour and 30 minutes each day. The entrepreneurs are creating apps and selling worksheets and creating content about phonics and sight words. The big organizations are funding libraries in schools and posting pics of opening ceremonies and hosting donation drives for books. And some of this is really great work. Great work, especially creating libraries and improving access to books. But prescribed reading times? My kid does not have 90 minutes every day to read by himself. I certainly don't have the time to read aloud for even 30 minutes on most days. When busy parents or parents who struggle with reading and literacy themselves see these kinds of stats, it feels like an unsurmountable task. You will either not do it because it feels overwhelming, or you will try to enforce these prescribed times, stressing yourself out and likely harming the relationship with your children. And do you think this is going to create strong positive associations with books for your kids? And then you have all the worksheets. Children are given worksheets and assignments every day if they attend traditional school. Will more worksheets really foster a love of books that will take them into their teen years and even adulthood? Are more worksheets the way to create strong positive associations with books that will last a lifetime? I can guarantee you that that's not the case. And what about all these reading apps? Gamifying the reading experience is brilliant. But what happens when the game becomes more exciting than the actual reading? And this happened to me with one of the most popular Learn to Read apps. My kids stopped learning and ended up more interested in the games in the app. That's how screens work, right? That's how they're designed to work. And what I found then was that with apps, you have to put the work in as a parent or a teacher. You have to sit with the child while they're on the app because it's very easy to go from learning to simply playing, to take away from the learning experience. Otherwise, honestly, it's it's just a waste of time. And lastly, what about access to books? Being surrounded by books is definitely a great way to garner interest in reading. But if you already have children that don't love it, will libraries filled with books really work? Without dedicated librarians or teachers or volunteers actively engaging children with books, you will once again be preaching to the choir. The interest will be once again with children that already love books. And then the kids that really need it are going to be entering these spaces in which they already feel like they do not belong. Yep, children that don't feel like they belong in libraries or in bookstores or around books and yet don't have anyone to welcome them in or show them to the door. I mean that metaphorically, of course. So when I see so when I see these things being promoted by bookish influences, it irks me because so much is false information, outdated information, or overcomplicated information.

Reading Aloud Does Not Expire

SPEAKER_00 12:57

So I really want to just bust some of those myths before my brain explodes. Myth number one, and this is a myth that's right at the top of my list. The myth that reading aloud stops when your child can read by themselves or when they are proficient and seem to roll their eyes at being read too. Is there a button here that I can insert a loud gong sound that encapsulates me breaking this myth wide open and shoving it into the deepest place on earth? I wish there was. Reading aloud was never about teaching our children to read. It has nothing to do with that. So it follows that there should be no connection to a child's ability to read and them being read aloud too. So let's go back to some of the most important reasons for why we read aloud to children. We read to number one, build meaningful connections with our children through books. Number two, get our children to associate books and reading with the warmth of being enveloped in a story with their safe adults. Number three, we read aloud to share moments of empathy through the exploration of complex themes, again through story and with their safe adults, right there to talk them through what they might be experiencing through that story. Now, when children start learning to read for themselves, the books that they're able to decode are not hella complex. To practice the decoding of words, they are usually reading at their grade level, reading simple books. Even brilliant new readers still work hard at the decoding, and sometimes that can take away some of the joy of reading. Yes, children are very excited at being able to decode. It's like being able to solve a puzzle, but are they really engaging with the story the same way that they would if they were listening to someone else reading it? So many times the lack of enjoyment of reading starts right here. Reading can become work, it starts to feel like hard work. The new reader is sometimes exhausted with making sense of the symbols, and the meaning becomes secondary sometimes. Or even if the decoding is easy, it may not always be pleasurable. So children stop associating reading with a fun thing to do. Reading becomes a chore. And for children that have learning difficulties because they're dyslexic or have poor tracking abilities or just haven't yet caught on to the whole decoding thing very well, it's often where they get off that train. Yep, they get off the reading train. And later, these are the kids that will proudly say, nah, I'm not a reader, I don't like books, I prefer the movie. Why? Because they associate books with hard work, not with true wonderful enjoyment. My kids are excellent readers, but they still prefer audiobooks and they still prefer me reading to them. And I think that says a lot. Bottom line, we continue reading aloud to children long after they have acquired the ability to read for themselves because this is how we build a love for books. It's never about being able to read, it's always about connection and it's always about sharing stories. I think that myth is sufficiently busted. Now let's go on to one that's a little bit connected.

Teens Need Stories More Than Ever

SPEAKER_00 16:30

Myth number two: older children don't want to be read aloud to. Now, here is where the research really gets interesting. Big kids need read alouds because it has huge cognitive and emotional benefits. Research consistently shows that children's listening comprehension remains years ahead of their independent reading level, well into their teenage years. That means that a child might read at, say, grade two level, but they can understand things at grade four, grade five, grade six, ideas that are way ahead of their reading level when they're listening. Reading aloud gives all children, yes, even your grumpy teens, access to complex themes, rich language, big ideas. It's sort of like the scaffolding for their intellectual growth. I really like that metaphor. Yes, reading aloud to them is like you're scaffolding their brains and you're creating all of the structure which is going to serve them so well into their lives. Multiple studies on parent-child reading interactions found that shared reading, especially in later childhood years and well into adulthood, strengthens attachment, emotional attunement, language responsiveness. So, yes, this doesn't magically stop at age 10 or age 7 or what have you. If your teen has gotten off that reading train and books are not for them, it is because they stopped associating stories with closeness. Now, unfortunately for them, reading may be all about measurement, performance, assessment. Reading aloud to your child will keep reading relational. And I've said this before in many of my other episodes. Keep your reading aloud relational in your home. What this does is that it keeps books associated with warmth instead of performance. And the other thing is that, you know, if you are navigating really difficult times with your teen, with your older child, reading aloud actually creates what psychologists term a low pressure emotional bridge. So you here you are, you're sitting side by side, you're sharing a narrative, you now can discuss safely through characters and through the story. So it's like the stories are essentially becoming that safe third space. And if you don't believe me, I challenge you to try it. Just open a good book, Warriors by Erin Hunter, or Masks by Margaret Ray, and just start reading out loud while your teens are nearby. You don't have to make a big thing of it. You don't have to say, you're gonna sit here and I'm gonna read aloud to you. I'm just saying open that book while you know they're in your space and start reading. If they don't start listening, if they don't want to come closer or show some curiosity, if it doesn't pique their interest, I will buy you a coffee. Let's move on to myth number three. I promise you, I will buy you a coffee. I'm I have such confidence in this ability of reading aloud to build those connections, especially with those teens that want to come across as really cool, that are going through their own hormonal stuff, which is kind of causing them to separate

Stop Timing Reading Like Homework

SPEAKER_00 19:55

from their parents, from these safe adults that don't really know as much as they do. Trust me when I say reading aloud can be your salvation. Myth number three, and here's my particular bugbear: prescribed reading times. And I'm talking about clocking times on a watch, clocking minutes and clocking hours because some research study said that you have to read for 18 minutes or 28 minutes or 90 minutes. There are so many posters circulating all over the bookish internet about how much your children should be read to at every age and how much they should be engaging in independent reading at every age. It's all hogwash as far as I'm concerned. And I know that there are teachers that are probably critting their teeth as I say this, but just hear me out. I will give the creators and purveyors of this information the benefit of the doubt and say that they're putting out this information as a guide and that they're trying to be helpful. I would also like to hit them over the head with a frying pan because so many times that information is just stress-inducing. Even as someone who regularly reads aloud to my kids, when I see these figures, it gives me heart palpitations. Bookish friends, reading aloud in your home can so easily become part of your family's culture, even if you've never done it before. It does not need a prescribed amount of time. Five minutes at breakfast, ten minutes before bed, one hour over the weekends because you can't get enough of a good book. It has to work with your family's rhythm, otherwise, it will not work at all. Yes, of course, you should be intentional about it, but it starts small and grows the way you nourish it in your family. Reading aloud for one hour is not going to give you the benefits it should if you are holding your children hostage, if the story is not interesting to you or your kids, or if you're thinking about all the chores and errands you need to do and you sound completely uninterested in the Story and your kids will know, they will know, they're very smart, and anything that we don't enjoy isn't something we're going to want to do. It's not sustainable. So when I see these kinds of prescribed times, I know it's causing stress, and I know it's not sustainable, and I know that it's extremely counterintuitive for any organizations to be putting out these things. So, what should you do? I'm going to talk about that just now.

Reading Aloud Helps Adults Too

SPEAKER_00 22:26

Let me just go on to myth number four that reading aloud is only for the listeners. Research shows that readers, that is, the people doing the reading, get better at reading expression, comprehension monitoring, and their own confidence. More oral reading equals greater fluency development. Reading aloud's not childish, it's actually advanced

Common Objections And Real Constraints

SPEAKER_00 22:50

literacy. I'm gonna take a little break, and when I get back, we're going to address some of the frequent questions I get about reading aloud, and I'm specifically talking to the parents and primary caregivers that are listening now and are still going, yeah, you can take your research and fly a kite, Natasha. I hear what you're saying, but this only applies in an ideal world. I have a teen who is just going to roll their eyes if I take a book out and start reading aloud. Or I've never done this before, and even I will feel like I am an imposter if I start. Or my child is only interested in phones, and if I start reading out loud, they're going to disapparate faster than Dobby the house elf. And the most real one, I don't have time. My family does not look like yours, and we don't just sit around with free time and books all around us. If you're thinking any of these things, please stay with me and listen just a little longer. I promise I got you.

The Long Game Of Family Memories

SPEAKER_00 23:55

Okay, bookish friends, let's get into our time machine and travel 30 years into the future. If reading aloud and reading together is part of your family rhythms, your children decades from now are going to remember the sound of your voice reading in the dark, the rustle of pages of books being turned together, the warm feeling of being held inside a story. Children will forget worksheets and exams, those phonics books and Letterland and World Book Day dress up day. They will forget that maths test they aced or getting top five assembly or graduating Summa Com Laude. But your children will remember the smaller moments that mattered, and they will remember how this act of reading together made them feel close to you amidst all the outside noise. Mom, Dad, Gran, that was my safe space is how they will feel later on. But reading aloud says you matter, your imagination matters, this time together matters, and those messages are going to echo in their lives for years. If reading aloud feels awkward, if you never really did it, if you stopped once your child could read independently, you are not alone. You didn't do anything wrong. And let me tell you something, it's not too late to start or to start again. And yes, it does feel weird. For many adults, reading aloud feels strangely vulnerable. When I first started when Kai was a newborn, I was super aucs about hearing my own voice. I wondered if it sounded silly, I worried about accents or expression, I worried about getting it right. Some parents have told me that because their child is older, reading aloud feels almost inappropriate, like you missed the exit ramp years ago. And that's because culturally we framed reading aloud as a temporary training tool. But bookish friends, as I've already said before the tea break, the research tells a very different story. So I'm not gonna rehash old episodes.

Practical Help And Episode Recommendations

SPEAKER_00 25:59

What I'm gonna do is I'm going to direct you now to some of the episodes I've done previously, which will help you to navigate things like the awkwardness. What do you do when you feel like you actually don't know how to do voices? What do you do when you have children that seem to not want to sit still? What do you do for instances when the books are not exactly the ones that you enjoy? I've actually done a few episodes about reading aloud already, you know, reading to your newborn, reading in the early years, what to read aloud, and even how to read aloud, which is actually one of the most fun episodes I've done. And I'm going to link to all of this in the show notes. But what I'm gonna do now is just mention a few of those episodes, just so you can see which one's the one for you. And I'm gonna give a very brief summary of it instead of rehashing things I've already spoken about before. So in my one episode called Voices, Interruptions and Fidgets, it's all about how can we master that read aloud experience. And it's especially for you if you've ever felt awkward reading aloud. You know, if you felt self-conscious about reading aloud to your child, you know, if you get that strange feeling of having to perform for an audience, if you struggle with character voices, if you wonder whether you're doing it right, if your child wanders off or interrupts during a story, this is the episode for you because trust me, you are not alone. These are such common things that happen when you read aloud. Feeling awkward, having kids that fidget. And in this episode, I speak about the how to read aloud, but I'm also speaking about how to choose books that spark joy for you so that you're not sitting there completely bored with the story and completely, you know, and your mind is wandering off into a different direction, which your kids will obviously know. I also talk about how normal it is for children to fidget and how sometimes kids actually listen better when they fidget. So this episode, which is episode six of season one, which I will link to, is great if you want to learn about how to master that read aloud experience. Another really great episode that goes kind of hand in hand with this one, is an episode that I did about graphic novels. But this one is about how to read graphic novels and as well as how to choose graphic novels to read. And it's episode five of season one, and it's called Why That Whoosh, Bonk, and Splat Matter More Than You Think. It's essentially understanding that when you read graphic novels or comic books, it's a very different experience. It's about how you actually do this with your child, about slowing down, about placing your finger under where the character's dialogue is, how to make those dramatic sound effects if you really want to, why things like bonk and crash matter, how this actually helps children to become excellent readers for themselves, because these words are your actual sight words, right? And then in the episode, I also give tons of amazing book recommendations which parents and children will absolutely love. Another really good episode if you're just starting off your reading read aloud experience, or if you're reading to slightly older kids and you're feeling a little bit concerned that children tend to gravitate towards scary stories, is about all about why kids love spooky stories. And this is from season two, episode three, and it's all about the science and joy of spooky, essentially. I actually did it over Halloween, and it's one of the most popular episodes on the podcast, and it's kind of like understanding how safe fear can really light up a child's brain, how fear and feeling those kind of scary, spooky feels in a safe environment through literature actually teaches emotional regulation and gives children a surprising edge in real life resilience. So it's a really great episode if you're questioning what books your children are actually choosing, especially if you are worried that they tend to only go in for horror or things that are morbid. One of the best episodes, if you want to create a reading culture at home, is actually called Creating a Home Book Club Culture, no homework required. So in this episode, which is season one, episode 11, it's an episode that gets hits every single day from people all over the world. It's all about how you create a culture of reading in your home that makes everyone in the family associate books and reading with just warm, fuzzy, amazing feelings. It's essentially about how you get children to stop thinking about books as if it's just part of school. You know, sometimes the school assignment can transform the most magical book into something that's just performative and academic and really becomes this tedious chore. And in this episode, I talk about how we can have simple rituals like blanket picnics with stories, one-on-one coffee dates with our teens, even, and really creative book reviews and documentation methods that transform how our families experience books. And they're all tried and tested. These are things that I have done with my kids, especially over holidays. Instead of bringing out more worksheets, we tend to do more magical bookish things at home that are really easy, low cost, low time, low effort, but with amazing, amazing gains. So episode 11, season one, is your go-to if you want to create a home book club culture. As you go through the podcast, you're gonna find a bunch of episodes that may speak specifically to you. In one of my interviews with an author, Rosalind Torreen, a brilliant South African author, she speaks about her own reading journey and how she wasn't the best reader in school, and how a dedicated teacher and a mom who valued words and valued books and reading really transformed her academic life as well as how she associated with books. And I think it really speaks to the value of having people around children that love books and reading. And there's there's something for everyone within the podcast without me sounding as if this is a plug to the podcast. I mean, you're here because you want to raise readers, you're here because you are interested in getting your children, in giving your children this head start in life, a love of books, something that will take them into adulthood in the most beautiful way. They will never ever be lonely if you if they have a love of story. Bookish friends, if they have a love

The Right Book Is The Loved One

SPEAKER_00 33:06

of story. Bookish friends, the last myth that I'm going to bust here at the end of this episode is that there are specific books that should be read aloud. And all I'm gonna say on this is that the best book for your child is the one that they love. And it may not be the one that you love, but what if I hate reading? What if reading is just not my thing? What if I have no interest in books? What if there's a parent who can't read? What if this is just not my vibe? The thing is that you're here, you're listening to this episode, you're reading all those posters about the importance of reading, the importance of books, because you want to inculcate this love of books and reading in your child because you feel that that's important, even if it's not something that you want to do. Unfortunately, the best way to ignite a love of books and reading in your children is to demonstrate it. If you can't read yourself or don't have the time to do so, then there should be somebody that does perform that role within that child's life. You know, another thing I would suggest is audiobooks, listening to audiobooks together. But just giving a child a bunch of CDs or a bunch of audiobooks isn't doing the thing that reading aloud is meant to do, which is to create the bond. The reason why you're here is because you want to raise readers. And the way we raise readers is through creating beautiful memories associated with books. You're not going to create those beautiful memories if you remove yourself from the equation because you feel that you are not a reader yourself. You

Brain Science On Stories And Focus

SPEAKER_00 34:41

know, I just have to add here that recent neuroscience research using brain imaging showed that when children listen to stories, multiple regions of the brain activate simultaneously, including areas responsible for language processing, sensory imagery, and emotional understanding. And that's pretty amazing, I think. Another study that was done in 2017 found that children who are read to regularly show stronger neural connectivity in areas linked to comprehension and to imagination. And that that's just blowing my mind, right? Just by being read to. And simply listening to stories helps build the brain's storytelling network. And a key insight from this, and if you take away nothing else, take away this. When children read silently, especially our earlier readers, much of their brain power goes into decoding. When they listen to a story read aloud, that cognitive load drops and the brain can focus on meaning once again. And more importantly, vocabulary shapes our thinking. More words means more precise thoughts. So why wouldn't we be reading aloud to our kids? And lastly, you know, talking about the fact that we've got so many more kids that are unable to focus, have problems with attention. And there's a lot of research about this, and there's a lot more reasons than simply not being read to. But we are raising children these days in an environment that fractures attention. You've got short form videos, you've got your YouTube shots, TikTok, etc. We've got endless scrolling, constant stimulation. Shared reading actually does the opposite. It allows us to help their sustained attention, it helps us to build their working memory, their narrative sequencing, and their attention regulation. And these are all your executive function skills. In other words, reading aloud trains the brain to just stay with something, stay with something, stay with the story for a little bit longer. And this is becoming increasingly rare, and it is of incredible

Final Takeaways And Goodbye

SPEAKER_00 36:51

value. Thank you for listening, and don't forget to join us next time for more cases.