Shirley J. Adult Non-Fiction How Reading Aloud can Improve the Quality of LIfe
by Meghan Cox Gurdon 278 pages
The author discusses how she began reading to her children andcontinued into their early teens. It became a family time with age appropriate books and there was lively discussions of the stories, some acting out of the story especially by her son, Paris who particularly loved treasure Islad and playing the part of the Pirates. Her children preferred her using different voices and accents to portray multiple characters in the stories. Through observation she noted this down time, just an hour a night relaxed the children and this became a part of their winding down process before bedtime. She discussed it with friends and colleagues and when they tried it with their children all were astonished at how gettig away from their tablets ipads, and phones to spen quality time with one another improved their children's vocabularies, helped them to be more socialized at school and in life. They developed a comfort level with speaking to and also in front of others when she introduced allowing the children to read aloud too. Her friends found that while babies would rampage during the pre-verbalizing stage, by the time they were two they had settled down and were picking their own stories to be read instead of chewing on the books. She has also found that reading to Alzheier patients, and the elderly in general is also a pacifying exercise enjoyable to all involved. She found you never become too old to appreciate the sound of someone reading to yu. She had been hesitant thinking older people wuld not go for it, but, to her delight found out they did enjoy it. She experimented further while volunteering at an animal shelter finding that the animals that came in fearful and hyper would calm down when she sat down in front of their cages or on one to one times listening to her read to them soothed them, they would often come closer when they had at first stayed as far back in their cages as possible. There have beren studies done proving that children who are read to perform better academically. While realizing it is often not doable for families who work and may not have the time to indulge in an hour of reading but she suggests even a short book, or newspaper article or even reading the ingredients off of a cereal bos, cake mix, etc. as one woman told her that during the Second World War in England when there was little time and little access to storybooks, she would read the backs of food packages to her son to keep the idea of storytime going. She said his favorite was reading the back of an ovaltine box. So many delightful ways the spoken word helps improve the quality of life for every one man and beast.regardless of age. I love audiobooks myself and I'm 65. I remember when my Mom would read newspaper articles to me after dinner while we still sat at the table talking. When I was little she was an avid reader and set the example for me to read, too, bringing me Little Golden Books to read. Good times. I recommend this book to parents, teachers, and all who love the written and spoken word.
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