How does reading aloud to children and pointing to the words benefit their literacy skills?

Reading aloud to children while pointing to the words significantly promotes print awareness and understanding of text structure. This practice helps children make connections between spoken language and written words, facilitating their awareness of how text is organized. They begin to recognize that text flows from left to right and understands the concept of a sentence, how words form sentences, and how stories are structured with beginning, middle, and end components.

When children see the words as they hear them, they enhance their decoding skills, which are crucial for reading proficiency. This interaction with text also fosters their ability to navigate written language, laying a strong foundation for comprehension and literacy development. Thus, the act of reading aloud and pointing to words is a powerful strategy in literacy education that directly impacts a child's understanding of how reading works.