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It's always cause for celebration when a child explodes into reading and finds joy in reading to herself. Independent reading helps your child progress with her reading skills and establishes reading for pleasure as a life-long habit. However, your child’s ability to read to herself need not impact your tradition of family-read aloud. Research into the benefits of reading aloud to a child who can comfortably read to herself shows that often a child’s reading level doesn’t catch up to her listening level until around 8th grade, meaning she can easily understand books that are still too difficult for her to decode on her own. Reading aloud is also a great way to introduce your child to new authors, genres and ideas. Additionally, parent-child read-aloud offers quality time together and strengthens family connections through the hectic ‘tween and early teen years.  So yes, support your child in finding the time and space to strengthen her silent reading, but keep read-aloud alive in your family – everyone benefits!