Medical Xpress – Staff Writer
“Children that are seldom read to and whose parents read very little are at a disadvantage when they start school. There is a strong connection between a child’s reading environment at home from the time they are very young and the progress a child makes in being able to read once they start school. This was the finding of a study undertaken in connection with the On Track research project at the Norwegian Reading Centre at the University of Stavanger (UoS). “There are big differences among six-year-olds. While many new first grade pupils can already read on their own, others are not even at the point where they understand that letters represent sounds. We know from the research that it is important that children are well prepared for reading when they start school and will be embarking on formal literacy. This study shows that the parents’ attitudes to reading, the number of children’s books in the home, the age at which parents start reading aloud to children and how often they read to them all determine how well prepared children are to learn to read when starting school”, says Vibeke Bergersen.”(more)