(From a talk I gave several years ago. I apologize for the length.)

When I was asked to come to speak about the importance of reading aloud to children, my first thought was “But doesn’t everyone already do that?”

Then, I started thinking about how busy most of our days are. I promise you, some days it feels like I am trying to squeeze 26 hours of activities into the allotted 24. I am surprised that I can even find time to breathe, much less take on one more responsibility.

But for me, the responsibility of reading to my children has always been more of a joy than a chore.

It could be because I have always loved books.

It could be because it brought back fond memories of being read to as a child. Even though I probably didn’t understand the story, I remember my mother reading Tarzan to me well before I could read.

Or it could have been because at the end of a tiring day, I could turn on the reading autopilot and let the book do the thinking for me. I could spend quality time with my children with very little effort expended. Then, when I was done, I knew the children would all be in bed, and I could have a little peace and quiet.

As a matter of fact, the only times my children did not get read to before bed, was when they were so exhausted they couldn’t even put on their own pajamas. And sometimes even then I read them a short story, until they began to snore their little child snores.

Now, I am a person who does not like routine. But I found that the routine of reading to my children every night provided them with so much comfort, that it was worth a little discomfort on my part.

So what if I missed my favorite show.

So what if the dishes were waiting for me, I needed to make some phone calls, bills needed to be paid, and I was exhausted.

So what if I had a million and one things waiting on my To Do list. I just knew in my heart that this was the right thing to do, and I followed my instinct. This time I spent reading aloud with my children was special to me, and more importantly, it was special to my children.

I will tell you, I have never regretted the millions of hours I have devoted to reading to my kids. The youngest is now 10 and the oldest is 19 and in college. They are all excellent readers, and as often follows, excellent students. And of course absolutely perfect in every way.

Well…they are all excellent students.

So that has been my experience.

Okay, so now you might say that I was just fortunate to have kids who are able to do well in school, which sets them up for success. You could be right.

I don’t know about you, but I want to give my child every advantage I possibly can.

I know some of you might believe that since the schools focus quite heavily on reading, that it is not really that important that you read to your child every night. After all, most children in Seattle Public Schools have a certain amount of time they are required to read every day.

But a child doesn’t start school as soon as they are born. By the time a child is 6 years old, they will have only had 700 hours in schools. That same child will have had 52,000 hours out of school!

Now based on studies, you can pretty much know in advance how prepared a child will be for school just by knowing where the child’s family is economically.

A typical child coming from the poverty level will hear 13 million words by the time they are 4.

A child from a working class family will hear 26 million, and from a professional 45 million.

The number of words heard makes a difference, because the more often a child “meets” a word, the better able they will be to understand and decode it. Skills which are vitally important in reading.

As a matter of fact, a child must meet a word 12 X before they start to recognize it.

So the child that has heard the most words will have the best chance of more easily learning to read.

We all know that the ability to read is directly related to success in school.

Okay, some of you might be thinking. I’ll solve that problem by talking to my child more.

Great idea, except nothing is ever as easy as it should be. The total number of words heard is only part of the story.

You see, we use the same 5,000 words over and over. They make up our Basic Lexicon. There are an additional 5,000 words that are used less often, but still, we pretty much only use and reuse the same 10,000 words in normal conversation.

To have a good vocabulary, a child will need more that those 10,000 normal words. A child must be exposed to rare words.

As you can see by this chart, even prime time TV, which you would think would be full of great vocabulary, doesn’t even compare to a children’s book. Would you have ever guessed that your child would be better off reading a magazine or a comic book than watching television?

On a side note, many people overestimate the level of vocabulary used on TV. For example, the typical Cosby Show episode used vocabulary at the third grade level. And very few rare words.

Of course, the vocabulary a child will acquire through books is only a part of the puzzle. If all a child needed was to hear more rare words, you could probably just pop in a PBS video, and your job would be done.

Boy, would you be missing out, and so would your child.

Because you see, in this whole read aloud activity with your child, the most important part of reading to your child…is you.

When you take the time to read to your child, you are saying to them “you are important to me.”

You are telling them “reading is something I enjoy, so I want to share it with you.”

You are giving them a new place of comfort that will be available to them for the rest of their lives.

They may not consciously remember why, but when they get older, they’ll get that warm fuzzy feeling every time they pick up a book. And you will have created that warm fuzzy place for them.

You will have made reading a fun activity.

So if you already read to your child, keep doing it, and enjoy the time you spend with your child.

If you don’t yet have the habit of reading aloud to your kids, it’s really never too late to start. Kids love getting attention from their parents. Unless, of course, they are getting the negative kind because they have been writing on the walls or forgot to do their homework.

So don’t worry if your child can read. Just as you don’t stop talking to your child once they learn to talk, why should you stop reading to them just because they learned to read. You can still share the drama and fun of reading.

Oh, and you remember me mentioning my 10 year old? Well, she still gets read to even though last year she tested as able to read at an 11th grade level. We just read harder books that are, of course, fun.