Early Years practitioners, librarians, parents and anyone who has ever read a book to young children will be very familiar with the phrase ‘Can we read it again?!’. While adults might fear hearing these five words again and again, research indicates there are benefits to revisiting much-loved texts.
This blog will explore the research which highlights the multiple benefits of reading aloud to children in the EYFS and Key Stage 1, the specific benefits of revisiting the same text and consider what this means for our classroom practice.
The benefits of read aloud time
The research evidence is overwhelmingly clear: reading aloud to children matters and needs to be prioritised.
- Attainment: International research, such as the PIRLS and PISA studies, indicate that there is a strong association between being read aloud to at a young age and later reading attainment (Araújo & Costa, 2023). Findings from longitudinal research also indicate that ‘reading to children at age 4 to 5 frequently has significant positive effects on the cognitive skills of children’ (Kalb & van Ours, 2013, p. 2)
- Vocabulary: Studies that have explored the language of children’s books reveal the rich and varied vocabulary they contain. Research show us that ‘text is not speech written down’ (Nation & Dawson, 2024, p. 4) and, therefore, by reading aloud to children we are exposing them to vocabulary which is more sophisticated (Nation, et al., 2022) and morphologically complex (Korochkina, et al., 2024) than that which they hear in spoken language. Reading aloud to children from a range of genres, including informational texts, increases this lexical diversity (Green & Keogh, 2024).
- Reading for Pleasure: Children’s enjoyment of reading has been identified as a more important predictor of educational success than their family’s socio-economic status (OECD, 2002). Reading aloud, which is social and informal in nature, has been identified as a key pedagogy for developing rich Reading for Pleasure cultures within our schools and fostering reading enjoyment (Cremin, et al., 20141).
The benefits of re-reading books aloud
Other research studies have also explored the benefits of revisiting texts that have previously been read aloud.
- Developed understanding of text: Repeated reads of the same picture book can support children’s meaning-making and lead to more nuanced responses to texts (Rodriguez Leon & Payler, 2021). For example, children noticing details they may have missed during the first read or how the illustrations interact with the text.
- Vocabulary: It’s widely understood that children need multiple exposures to new vocabulary, in multiple contexts, in order to develop a secure understanding of new terms and concepts (National Reading Panel, 20002). Findings from experimental psychology indicate that rereading the same book aloud to children can support their word learning of novel vocabulary within the text (Horst et al., 2011).
- Oral retelling: As children build familiarity with a book that has been read aloud to them multiple times, they begin to internalise the narrative and vocabulary within the text. They are able to join in with the repeated refrains and their favourite parts (Trelease & Giorgis, 20193) and use more diverse vocabulary when retelling the story orally (Dawson & Nation, 2024).
Re-reading aloud much-loved favourites also provides the opportunity for younger children to engage in readerly behaviour: finding a familiar book in the book corner and using the illustrations as a stimulus to orally retell the story.
A child who is familiar with Malorie Blackman and Dapo Adeola’s We’re Going to Find the Monster after being read aloud the story multiple times might be able to retell the story orally, even if they are unable to decode all text within the book.
Reading aloud at school
Considering the benefits of reading and re-reading books aloud, ideally children would experience this regularly at both school and at home.
Unfortunately, research from Neilsen indicates that there has been a year-on-year decrease in the proportion of children in the UK being read aloud to at home since 2012.
Their latest data show that the majority of children aged 5 – 7 (61%) included in the study are not read aloud to every day or nearly every day at home. The reasons for this decline are complex, but this data further underscores the importance of read aloud time at school.
What does this mean for our classroom practice?
- Read aloud every day. Ensure there is protected time for all children to hear high-quality texts, from a range of genres and text types, read aloud every single day.
- Curate a selection of class favourites. Tune into your children’s interests and curate a selection of texts that they enjoy to revisit during read aloud time. Store these in a special basket and ensure children have access to these texts and are able to borrow them to enjoy at home.
- Provide targeted read aloud opportunities for vulnerable readers. If particular children do not benefit from being read aloud to at home, plan opportunities for an adult to read aloud to them one-to-one or in a small group.
- Books going home. Alongside a decodable text aligned with your school’s chosen SSP programme, ensure you provide opportunities for children to bring home high-quality texts. They might want to choose one of the class favourites or a new text for an adult at home to read aloud.
- Organise parent workshops. Plan workshops for families that highlight the importance of reading aloud at home and support parents to build their confidence in sharing stories and texts. Target these workshops at the families who would benefit from this support the most.
Join our webinar on The power of storytelling and reading aloud in Primary on Wednesday 4th December at 3.45 – 4.45pm.