The most important 20 minutes of your day should be the time when you read with your child, per seminal findings of William Nagy and Patricia Herman which they published in the American Journal of Educational Research in 1987. These authors studied a sample of children in 3rd, 5th and 7th grades who read passages from grade-level textbooks and were subsequently tested on their knowledge of difficult words. As you may correctly guess, consistent exposure to reading resulted in gains in the knowledge of words across grade levels and reading ability levels. 

If a hypothetical student (student A) reads 20 minutes each day, this is 3,600 minutes of reading per year and 1,800,000 words read. This student typically scores at the 90th percentile on standardized tests. 

If we take another hypothetical student (student B) who reads 5 minutes per day, well that is 900 minutes per year and around 282,000 words per year. Student B is expected to score at 50th percentile on standardized tests. 

And for the final comparison, a hypothetical student reading only 1 minute per day reads only about 8,000 words per year. Student C will typically score at 10th percentile on a standardized exam.

Who do we think will become a better reader and learner  and have better vocabulary? 

See the post on which books to include in your child’s early journey into reading here.