This month the blog posts have been about the hows and whys of reading to young children. My apologies–I should have blogged about the following concern much earlier. Yes, parents and caregivers can read books and stories to kids in any language. You do not have to read to your children in English. The only limitation will be finding books in other languages. While there are many in Spanish and some in French, you may have to check around for others. It is, actually, very important for families that speak other languages at home to read to children in those languages to help them understand what reading is all about. Exposure to books in English is beneficial for kindergarten readiness; exposure to books in the family language is valuable for understanding and enjoyment.
The process of reading is the same in all languages even though the squiggles and lines are different. It is still making connections between what is written and what we bring in terms of meaning. I’ll give you an example which will make this more clear. I’m sure all of you can read the following sentence: The gliffer borked a zan. Now, while you could figure out how to say all those words you could not understand them. There was no connection to your experiences so you could not give them any meaning. So, go ahead, read to your kids in the language that is meaningful for you and them, as well as in English. The adventure of books and stories is more fun when you have some exciting experiences of your own. What are your recent ones?