What if you could do one simple thing to make sure your child reads well and enjoys reading?

What if that thing didn’t cost a penny?

Would you be interested?

Of course you would. Here it is. The only thing you can do to improve your child’s reading is to significantly increase the amount of speaking and listening.

That is all.

Too simple, you say? No, research shows that children who are read aloud and spoken to learn patterns of language and meaning that they remember when they read. In fact, what they do is reflect the language in the printed word.

It works like this. A child learns a word and its meaning by listening to it, that is, he experiences the word. When they learn to read, they draw on that meaning or experience. If the child has a deficit in oral language experiences, he will have less to contribute to reading. The word does not make sense to him because he has not felt (experienced) it.

The richer the oral language experience, the faster and better the child will read. Researchers call oral language experiences orality. So just as literacy is the ability to read and write, orality is the ability to speak and listen.

Here’s a big surprise. The most important aspect of children’s language experience is its quantity. Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley, authors of the significant differences in the daily experiences of young American children did a longitudinal study in which they recorded each month, for 2-1 / 2 years, a full hour of each word spoken at home between parents and child in 42 families, categorized as professional, working class, or welfare families.

By the age of three, the vocabulary of children from professional families was dramatically higher by several hundred words than that of a child from a welfare family. Hart and Risely estimate that in a year a 3-year-old from a professional family will hear 11 million words, while a child from a welfare family will hear only 3 million.

What are the implications? Amazing, if you imagine that orality is the key to lasting literacy. These authors rechecked the children at age nine. They found profound differences in the level of learning, literacy and social maturity.

What kinds of oral language experiences are the best? Ordering or demanding certain behaviors from your child is not the type of orality we are referring to. The best types of experiences include genuine exchange and dialogue.

Here are a few: Read high-quality literature aloud (this is a must every day) Children’s songs and fairy tales Word games, such as tongue twisters and silly sayings Tell stories you make up Enjoy a magazine together, where you ask your son that you tell it about the photos.

Other ways are: Use open-ended questions instead of making statements. (For example, it is a beautiful picture that you drew, can you tell me about it?) Talk about the process of doing something while doing it. (For example, when you go to the store or cook or make repairs, talk with your child about what you are doing.) Any activity that allows your child to talk and listen.

Remember, it’s the simple things in life, like talking and listening to your child, that make the difference. In this case, the difference lasts a lifetime.