Promoting reading 1
reading experience that creates bonds and frames
of reference between parent and child, siblings, or within a group at a preschool. For very young children in particular, reading aloud can form a substantial part of their psychological connections with others. In her book Den meningsfulla högläsningen (Meaningful reading aloud) (2012) compulsory school teacher Anne-Marie Körling provides practical tips on how to make use of reading aloud in the home, at school and at the library in order to enrich and develop the literacy and vocabulary of preschool children and students. Inspiration and practical tips are also provided in the book Reading Magic by Mem Fox (2001). A book about reading aloud that has had a major impact internationally is The read-aloud handbook by Jim Trelease, which was first published in 1982, with many subsequent editions. An updated version was published most recently in 2013. Dialogic reading The best kinds of reading aloud include reading aloud with feeling, using one’s gaze and one’s body while reading and engaging the child by asking questions. The didactics of reading aloud are also about using the book’s illustrations in a way that adds meaning to the story, and not allowing the pictures to draw attention away from the story’s language content. The best results are achieved by having prior knowledge of the book you are reading, and in particular studying the pictures in advance in order to be able to better discuss them. A variation on reading aloud that is often advocated consists of a dialogue between the children and/or between the children and the reader, before, during and after the reading. This method involves reading with, rather than to, children. A common name for this method of reading aloud is dialogic reading. There are studies in which the effects of reading aloud on children’s language development have been measured, and the effects of dialogic reading have been compared to other, less interactive forms of reading aloud. According to a meta-analysis of this kind of research, dialogic reading has the biggest impact on language development for groups of younger children (Mol et al. 2008). But the question of if and when dialogic reading is to be preferred is not just about language development, but also about the degree of engagement of the listener, and the motivation that can arise out of this engagement. It should be added that Swedish research in this area has pointed out that deficiencies in reading comprehension among children who read fluently are generally not detected until around the age of 10 (Elwér 2014). Engaging the child early in dialogue about what has been read makes it possible to detect and intervene in time where there are deficiencies in reading comprehension. In recent years, reading aloud for adults has become a popular feature at Swedish public libraries. Some libraries also organise reading aloud at nursing homes for the elderly. As part of a national project Läskraft! (Reading power!), which was a partnership between the Centrum för Lättäst (now part of the Swedish Agency for Accessible Media), Demensförbundet (The Dementia Association – Sweden’s National Association for the Rights of the Demented), Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan (an adult education organisation), the national library, and a dementia nursing home organised reading aloud for people with dementia. The project ran from 2009–2013 and has now become a part of regular activities (Kåberg 2013). Reading aloud can be a way to bring together different generations. There are projects where the older generations read aloud to the 44