OPINION: Read to your kids — en Español

Results from the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress show that only 20% of New Mexico fourth graders scored proficient or above in reading — no improvement since 2022. Scores for Hispanic students are consistently lower than overall rates. Eighth grade percentages are even lower, showing that the problem does not resolve with time.

Blame for poor reading scores among elementary school children in New Mexico usually focuses on the education system. But there is something that families can do to help little ones, long before they enter kindergarten. Read to them.

What’s more, if you speak Spanish at home, read to them in Spanish. Research shows that exposure to reading in Spanish first improves a child’s ability to read in English later.

Although this is not intuitive or known widely, it is not a new idea in the academic community. When I was in graduate school earning a master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages in 2013, I learned about first language decoding and the impact on second language reading. Since then, newer studies and research papers continue to support this practice.

A 2019 article in Science Daily, “Early reading in Spanish helps children learn to read English,” describes in plain language the results of a University of Delaware study which found “children who had strong early reading skills in their native Spanish language when they entered kindergarten experienced greater growth in their ability to read English from kindergarten through fourth grade.”

Even the authors were surprised at the importance of native Spanish reading skills on later abilities in English. There are many studies in cross-language transfer, but this study is unique in its focus on early childhood.

So make an extra effort to read to the babies and preschoolers in your life. That means you, older siblings and cousins, aunts and uncles. Put away the tablets and phones and videogames, and open a board book or picture book in Spanish or English, whichever is the child’s first language. It may be a while since you visited the public library, but you will find plenty of kid’s books in both languages there. Bring home a stack and let the toddlers climb onto your lap. They will be thrilled and will remember this connection with you forever. What’s more, you will be increasing their likelihood of success in school and help develop in them a lifelong love of reading.

For suggested reading lists and reading guides in both English and Spanish: https://www.barbarabush.org/parent-reading-guides/