The 7 Benefits of reading to your child
Reading skills are important to your child’s future success in school, work, and life in general. It is proven that you can help to ensure your child’s success by reading to them from an early age. Whether you’re reading a novel or fairy tales before bed, simply reading the story aloud can deliver benefits such as:
- Improved language skills
- Increased concentration and discipline
- Improved imagination and creativity
- Supported cognitive development
- Cultivating a long-term appreciation of reading
- Preparation for academic success
- Creating a special bond with your child
Improved Language Skills
By reading daily to young children, you can help them with language acquisition, communication skills, social skills, and literacy skills. This is because reading stimulates the part of the brain that allows them to understand the meaning of language and helps them to build key language, literacy and social skills.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, more than one in three American children start kindergarten without the basic skills needed to learn to read.
ALso, while a child will of course be able to learn from what they hear, there is much gained from the language of books, which differs from language heard in daily life. This language is more descriptive and uses more formal grammatical structures.
Increased concentration and discipline
Young children arent the best at sitting still for very long, and it can be difficult to get them to focus. But when you begin reading regularly, you’ll start to notice a change in behaviour. At first, they may be distracted, but eventually, they’ll start to remain focused and often keen to participate.
Improved imagination and creativity
Young children naturally have the capacity to use their imaginations. Reading aloud to them helps them to use their imaginations more. Reading can therefore open new doors to all kinds of new worlds for your child. By widening your child’s imagination, your child is more likely to dream bigger and act creatively which can benefit they school, work, and future life.
Supported cognitive development
Cognitive development refers to how a person perceives and thinks about their world through areas such as information processing, intelligence, reasoning, language development, attention span, and memory.
When you read aloud to your child, it provides them with background knowledge on their world, helping them to make sense of what they see, hear, and read.
The more adults read aloud to their children, the larger their vocabularies will grow and the more they will know and understand about the world and their place in it, assisting their cognitive development and perception.
Cultivating a long-term appreciation of reading
According to Jim Trelease, author of the best-seller, The Read-Aloud Handbook: “Every time we read to a child, we’re sending a ‘pleasure’ message to the child’s brain… You could even call it a commercial, conditioning the child to associate books and print with pleasure” (ReadAloud.org)
This connection between reading and “pleasure” is crucial for success later in life. As personal development coach and speaker Brian Tracy says, your ability to expand your mind and strive for lifelong learning is critical to your success — “Learning is the minimum requirement for success in any field.”
Reading is vital for lifelong learning, and if you can instil a love of reading at an early age, then a commitment to lifelong learning is sure to follow.
Preparation for academic success
Reading enables children to grow their vocabulary skills through exposure to new words and helps them develop listening skills that become vital to their academic success.
According to a study completed by the University of Michigan, there are five early reading skills that are essential for developmente:
- Phonemic awareness – Being able to hear, identify, and play with individual sounds in spoken words.
- Phonics – Being able to connect the letters of written language with the sounds of spoken language.
- Vocabulary – The knowledge of words required to communicate effectively.
- Reading comprehension – Being able to understand and get meaning from what has been read.
- Fluency (oral reading) – Being able to read text accurately and quickly.
While children will encounter these literacy skills and language development once they reach school, you can jumpstart their success by reading to them during their early years.
Creating a special bond with your child
As a parent/carer, one of the most important things you can do to positively influence the development of your child is to spend time with them. Reading a favourite book helps you to bond with them, and through the love and trust this creates, you will be encouraging their positive growth and development.
With babies specifically, when you read aloud to them, you provide a level of invaluable nurturing and reassurance.
Reading aloud together gives you and your child something to talk about, which in turn supports the development of reading and writing skills. It also gives you an opportunity to discuss real-life experiences and issues. The book can provide a springboard for more meaningful discussions which can further develop a child’s critical thinking skills.
In summary, literature is one of the best ways to help children understand something, without necessarily having to experience it for themselves. And, reading to your child will help to expose them to a variety of subjects and concepts, developing their understanding of humanity and the world around them.
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