Image courtesy of the National Center for Family Learning

November is highlighted by National Family Literacy Month, where the importance of reading as a family can have multiple impacts on children.

Jefferson Children’s Librarian Terry Clark says reading as a family helps children learn how to read, develop comprehension and communication skills. Additionally, Clark points out that reading as a family provides a great opportunity for bonding. She describes how reading as little as 15 minutes can have future impacts on youth.

“According to the annual ‘What Kids Are Reading’ report by Renaissance Learning, students that read less than 15 minutes per day will only encounter about 1.5 million words by the time they get to 12th grade. But students who read 15 minutes or more a day will encounter about 5.7 million words by the time they reach 12th grade. Those are pretty amazing statistics.”

Clark notes to further develop reading as a family, she suggests visiting a public library once per week, so you always have new and favorite stories to read; and you can also read books that were made into movies and then watch the movie as a family.