Reading aloud is something usually associated with parents reading at home to their children. In some schools it is used as a remedial technique for struggling readers. In recent year a growing body of research suggests that reading out loud may actually have significant cognitive benefits — even for experienced readers.

A recent study published in the journal of Memory found that reading words aloud made them easier to remember compared to reading the words silently. The study used four different experimental conditions to isolate exactly which elements were responsible for improved memory retention. The experimental group was asked to either read silently, read aloud, listen to recordings of other people reading, or listen to a recording of themselves reading. Memory retention proved to be the strongest when reading aloud directly, suggesting that the impact came not just from hearing the words, but also speaking them.

According to the researchers, this  happens because verbally pronouncing a word creates a memorable experience — a phenomenon the researchers call the “production effect.” The active cognitive process of encoding the word into speech also helps to encode it into long-term memory. Additionally, when it came to words heard through recordings, students were better able to remember those recorded in their own voice than those pronounced by someone else. This suggests that hearing one’s own voice provides a distinct stimulus of self-recognition, which also helps make the content memorable.

Years ago I authored FastMapping To Comprehension, a teacher resource to improve reading comprehension. The text required the reader to verbally think-aloud about a reading skill or strategy at certain stopping points identified in the text. Seven or more stopping points were embedded in a relatively short text. The oral recitation combined with the repetitive encounters with the target strategy moved understanding to long term memory.

Here are parent tips to make read-alouds effective tools for

• use text that the child has selected.
• keep it short-15-20 minutes.
• identify seven stopping points in the text.
• model and discuss your thinking to demonstrate how to conduct a think-aloud. (a think-aloud verbalizes the thinking process one uses)
• share the reading-both parent and child reads sections of the text out loud at the first 1-2 stopping points)
• the child reads the remaining stopping points orally and explains the thinking process.
• stopping points are  specific reading skills e.g. making inferences, vowel teams, affixes, silent E, or other reading skills and sub-skills. It is especially important to work on reading skills that the teacher has identified as needed.
• For fictional text, identifying character traits not specifically pointed out by the author as such by the author-character actions, feelings, thinking, relationships to other characters.
• nonfiction text and identifying key ideas by converting heading into who, what, where, when, why, or how questions.(email me for a detailed explanation for how to convert heading into questions)

In conclusion to maximize the power of the read-aloud it should be an interactive experience between parent and child.