Reading to child- Facts& figures

FACTS & FIGURES (from the National Center for Family Literacy Research Department, January, 2003)

oChildren who are read to 3 or more times a week by a family member are more likely to recognize all letters of the alphabet than children who read less frequently.
oChildren who are read to frequently are more likely than those who are not to count to 20 or higher, write their own names, and read or pretend to read.
oHearing a parent talk is your baby’s first step toward becoming a reader.
oOral reading at home to parents, guardians, or other family members promotes better readers.
oLearning to read and write is critical to your child’s success in school and beyond.

More astonishing facts!
Did you know that unless a
a child is exposed to
stimulation through all the
senses, up to 500 trillion
or half of the brain cell
connections will die off
by the age of ten?

By eight months, a baby’s brain
has about 1,000 trillion brain cell
connections. After that, the
number of connections begins to
decline. This decline is proportional
to the lack of sensory stimulation.


Did you know that language learning is a natural process during the first four years?
During the first six months of life, babies babble using a combination of 70 sounds that make up all the languages in the world. They will then learn to talk using only the sounds and words they pick up from their environment. For this reason, the first few years is the best time for a child to learn another language.


Preschool years are vital years!
50 percent of the ability to learn is developed in the first four years of life and another 30 percent by the age of eight. This does not mean that 50 to 80 percent of one’s intelligence, wisdom, or knowledge is formed during early childhood. But it does mean that during these years, children form the main learning pathways in their brains. Everything we learn later grows from the patterns established during these years.