Literacy has become a large issue within the United States over the years and is rarely expressed in today’s society. There are many steps that can be taken to combat this before a person enters the real world after graduating high school. Illiteracy rates are not commonly talked about because of the difficulty of proving accurate literacy rates. How does reading to children at an early age give them an advantage? It is proven that all children regardless of learning disabilities and handicaps always have limitless potential, but things would be much easier if someone had recognized this and taken the steps needed to help them at a younger age. Researching the topic of early childhood education makes one more aware of how vital it is to a child’s development and should encourage people to help want to learn more about the steps that can be taken to make the gap of illiteracy smaller. Through locating numerous scholarly articles, videos, and other important sources, I have found substantial evidence regarding the contributions to child literacy. My findings indicate that reading to children starting at an early age has many positive outcomes and provides the children with numerous social and learning advantages. 

Books in general are vital to the progression of society and always have been. An article by David Isaacs gives the reader background knowledge about books and how it was a privilege at one point in history to be able to own one because they were so expensive. He also introduces an interesting perspective on how books were also burned because could sometimes make people think in certain ways that could lead them to rebel or act against what was considered to be the appropriate way. This was done in order to keep people away from creating new ideas and controlling what was available for people to see. A real life example that Isaacs uses is the fact that he reads Huckleberry Finn to his own children at early ages because he does not want them to grow up with an idea of racism. He also helps the reader to appreciate the fact that reading a book helps open a person’s imagination and that the earlier a child is exposed to that, the better off he or she will be. In today’s world, books stimulate the mind and can take a person in to a different would that opens the mind to new ideas. Books are the number one source for obtaining knowledge and being able to read is vital. Isaacs then goes on to say how important it is for children to be read to at an early age because it will help them to grow up appreciating literature.

There have been countless studies to decide the best ways and techniques parents and teachers should use to make children successful. A study conducted by Cathleen Soundy suggests that it is part of the child’s daycare provider or teacher to read to them every day. The study shows facts regarding how much reading to children helps a child’s vocabulary skills and also encourages the environments where the child spends time to be stimulating. She creates the argument that the child spends an ample amount of time at a daycare provider or preschool and that they should be read to and receive individual attention while there each day. Lily Rothman also makes several different substantial points when discussing child literacy in her interview with Dr. High reported in Time news magazine. Dr. High addresses that the hardest part of testing the results of reading aloud to children is not being able to explicitly tell when a child is beginning to catch on to things being read to them. She says that it is important to be aware of what a parent is reading to their child (Rothman). In her interview with Dr. High, Rothman also includes that it is best to always read appropriate books to a child of any age because sure signs of early comprehension begin before the age of one (Rothman). Another article that was depicts what kinds of books should be read to children was conducted by James Heckman. Heckman concludes that environments that are not stimulating put a child at a disadvantage. “Third, cognitive, linguistic, social, and emotional competencies are interdependent; all are shaped powerfully by the experiences of the developing child; and all contribute to success in the society at large” (Heckman). This quote Heckman adds in the article shows how everything that a child experiences at a young age contributes to their success and also contributes to society as a whole. 

Rothman also address the socioeconomic attributes to child literacy and the steps that different organizations are taking to combat this. The report shows that family income levels and whether a child is read to or not are strongly related. Scholastic is one of the many organizations to recognize the problem and has begun donating books to an organization called Reach Out and Read that works with child doctors to get books in the hands of under privileged families. “But even in families that make 400% of the poverty threshold only 60% of children are read to daily” (Rothman 1). This statistic Rothman reports is a strong representation of the fact that income does affect a child’s chance of success in literacy. Although there is no proven evidence that not reading to children can leave a lasting effect on his or her future, it can be commonly insinuated that it is much harder for a person to learn to read and develop skills if they were never properly introduced at a young age. Another organization that is taking steps to combat child literacy is the Palmetto Project for the state of South Carolina. The Palmetto Project is partnered with another organization called the Imagination Station that is also working in the same field. The article states that in the state of South Carolina, one-third of the children do not have the literary skills needed to be successful in kindergarten. This staggering number is also built on at the older age of third grade. Sixty-seven percent of the third graders in South Carolina cannot read at the reading level associated with third graders. “Children who fall behind in reading proficiency are more likely to drop out of school, be unemployed, and live in poverty” (Palmetto Project). Although these statistics are just for one state in the United States, other findings indicate most of the same results for other states. Organizations that are helping children receive access to books at home like the ones discussed above are vital to helping lower the illiteracy rate. These establishments have found the literacy problem to be too great to ignore and have each made it their sole purpose to make the importance of reading to children known and are each finding different ways to give all children equal opportunities.

Social and literacy skills are two of the most imperative things people need to develop at some point in life. Home life and other characteristics of a person can attribute to how fast they pick up on these skills, but there are also numerous steps that can be taken to help combat these. A study on these very things was conducted by Sara Miles of Stanford University. It showed that there was a strong relationship between the two in the first few years of schooling, but it did decrease over time. The study determines that although there may be a decline in the effects on literacy as time goes on, it still shows multiple other negative aspects in not reading to children starting at early ages. It addressed the relationship between aggression and illiteracy and showed that the relationship gathered a trend as the child got older. In an interview with Fox News, Dorothy Bush gives another real-life perspective on the literacy issue. She says that her literary skills were formed because of her mother reading to her as a child. It is said that the first three years of life are critical in brain development and the earliest learning experiences for a child are what influence each child’s language development. Dorothy has partnered with the organization, Talk With Me Baby, to help encourage parents to talk to their kids and read to them very early on. Dorothy is committed to raising awareness on the importance of the subject and has many plans to help parents learn what they should do. Child literacy not only helps a person in the first few years of development, but also contributes to the overall well-being of the person psychologically as he or she ages.

Reading aloud to children at early ages has been proven to be important to early success, but who reads to the child is also a controversial subject. Many feel as if a child needs multiple sources of reading to get a well-rounded introduction. In the article “Facts about Child’s Literacy” by the National Education Association, it is revealed that the parents are who need to be reading to the child. The article does not disagree with the fact that the child benefits in many ways every time someone reads to them, but it is more efficient for the parent to do this. A child becomes more familiar with a parent’s voice and a stronger relationship will develop between the parent and child. “The Educational Testing Services reported that students who do more reading at home are better readers and have higher math scores; however, students read less for fun as they get older” (National Education Association). This statement concludes that children who were read to have advantages, but also shows the other problem that sometimes trying to force books on children causes them to appreciate them less. It is just as important to help a child learn to love books as well so they can continue to choose to read on their own in the future. A study performed by two credible and well-educated women, Adriana Weisleder and Anne Fernand, shows a main focus on factual information that reveals that a vocabulary enriching environment will help an infant’s language development. The study is conducted on two families of the same socioeconomic class, but one infant was spoken to directly and the other was not. Evidence showed that later on the child that was spoken to had developed better language skills. The purpose of the study is to reveal facts about literacy, but also to give awareness on how much reading aloud to a child can affect his or her future. 

Parents should begin reading to children as early as infancy because it sets the child up for success. Although a child’s attention span is much shorter at younger ages, the importance of hearing words and language development is just as important, maybe even more so. It is especially important for the parent to give the child individual attention because it can help build a stronger relationship between the parent and child. Some argue that it is also important for the child care provider or teacher to read to the child and also give individual attention because the child spends most of the day there and it also enhances the learning ability of the child. Another source that adds to this is a YouTube video that primarily shows how significant it is to prepare a child for success by reading to them aloud often. The video says that reading aloud to a child stimulates brain growth that consequently prepares the child for a better future. This video could be shown to parents and teachers to show how important it is for a child to be read aloud to at home as well as in the classroom. It will help further prove the point of reading to kids being an advantage when they get older because they will have better social skills while also being an entertaining way to learn more about it.

 