Tee Up to Read Resources

Literacy Development and Early Application

By age 2, a child’s brain is as active as an adult’s and by age 3 the brain is more than twice as active as an adult’s – and stays that way for the first 10 years of life.
Cognitive processes develop rapidly in the first few years of life. In fact, by age 3, roughly 85% of the brain is developed. However, traditional education takes places in grades K-12, which begin at age five.
According to the Department of Education, the more students read or are read to for fun on their own time and at home, the higher their reading scores, generally.
Reading and being read aloud to has an impact that extends beyond just hearing stories.
65% of America’s fourth graders do not read at a proficient level.
In a study of nearly 100,000 U.S. school children, access to printed materials was the key variable affecting reading acquisition.
Children’s academic successes at ages 9 and 10 can be attributed to the amount of talk they hear from birth through age 3. Young children who are exposed to certain early language and literacy experiences also prove to be good readers later on in life.
Books contain many words that children are unlikely to encounter frequently in spoken language. Books for kids actually contain 50% more words that children are unlikely to encounter frequently than regular conversation, TV or radio.
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) found that children who were read to frequently are also more likely to: count to 20, or higher than those who were not (60% vs. 44%), write their own names (54% vs. 40%), read or pretend to read (77% vs. 57%)
Higher reading exposure was 95% positively correlated with a growing region supporting semantic language processing in the brain.
The most important aspect of parent talk is its amount. Mothers who frequently speak to their infants have their children learn almost 300 more words by age 2 than did children whose mothers rarely spoke to them. Simultaneously, children learn the grammatical syntax and the social nuances around communication in their community.
Children exposed to fewer colors, less touch, little interaction with adults, fewer sights and sounds, and less language, actually have smaller brains.
The number of books in the home correlates significantly with higher reading scores for children.
Students who choose what they read and have an informal environment in which to read tend to be more motivated, read more, and show greater language and literacy development.
Children who are read to at least three times a week by a family member are almost twice as likely to score in the top 25% in reading compared to children who are read to less than 3 times a week.

Tee Up to Read Resources

Literacy Development and Early Application

Suggested Reading Lists

BIRTH TO 3 YEARS OLD

4 & 5 YEARS OLD

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