Why You Should Get Your Child into Reading

Guest Post by Brian of ChildrensBookStore.com

As parents, we understand that reading is a very important part of raising a child. But while you may know that reading is certainly better for a child than watching TV, you may not realize just how and in how many ways reading benefits your child. This article explains these benefits and spells out exactly why you should get your child into reading.

 

To build language skills

Reading aloud to your child when he or she is young has been proven to build language skills and advance their learning of speech skills as well. Hearing the sounds associated with the words and pictures allows them to make connections between the letters, the concepts in the pictures, and the sounds associated with them.

 

To teach them values

All stories, and especially children’s stories, hold vast amounts of cultural weight between the lines. These stories teach children what we as a society value, how they are expected to act in a given situation, and how to interact with others. These stories may seem like entertaining tales to the child, but they are digesting powerful lessons about how to act within our society.

 

To improve their attention span and creativity

Reading forces children to sit down and focus on a single thing while at the same time creating an image in their mind of the story they are reading. When compared to watching TV, where the images are created for them and there are endless channels to flip through and all content is divided into sections of thirty second content at the smallest, reading is am much more productive and rewarding activity.

 

To improve their academic performance

One of the best predictors of professional success is the size of a person’s vocabulary. Reading not only expands vocabulary, it also improves critical thinking, logical deduction, understanding of relationships between ideas, and reading comprehension. Better reading comprehension means that the child will read faster and process more of the information when reading during their schooling. This means that it will require less effort for them to learn the material and they will have a deeper understanding than their classmates who do not read as often.

 

To create a bonding experience

While not a practical benefit of getting your child into reading, this is arguably the most important benefit. When you and your child read together, you are spending relaxed, one on one time together where you are sharing a common love of reading. When your children get old enough where they no longer need you to read to them, you can continue the bonding experience by reading the same books and discussing them together.

 

So if you value your child’s development, future success in school and life, and want to create a stronger bond with them, you should get your child into reading as early as possible. There is no other single activity that can give them so many benefits and enjoyment at the same time.

 

 

+Brian Burton loves reading children’s books and running the blog at childrensbookstore.com. He often writes on the topics of children’s literature and parenting.

 

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6 Comments

  1. These are all great ideas, Brian. I agree. Plus, reading to children helps teach them social skills. The storyline and action in a book can demonstrate how characters interact successfully (or unsuccessfully). Characters in books van also model positive (and sometimes negative) behaviors and children can notice how others in the story react. Picture books also offer opportunities for children to recognize feelings in others and explore their own feelings. Great blog. Thanks, Renee

  2. I really liked this post! My son is 16 months and I love being able to read with him. Although, his attention span is not very long a page or two. But it’s a start! Thank you for the great information.

  3. I read to my 4-year-old of course, but it’s a struggle to get him interested at first. Sometimes he’ll whine through the whole book other times a few pages in he’ll calm down and really get into it. I just wish he’d be more eager to read.

    I get his books from the library based on this list here (we get others, but I make sure to get some of these each time) we’re working our way down the list.
    http://www.education.com/magazine/article/50-books-child-read-kindergarten/

  4. And from another point of view:
    I still have that special feeling when I think of the first stories and booklets that were read to me when I was I child, my mum and I still mention my favorites every now and then.
    The magic continued when I started to read alone offering me a complete wonderful world to immerge in.
    I rarely find books with that kind of power these days, but I still read a lot.

  5. To me some of this is reasonably obvious but I think the bonding strikes a particular cord with me. Our family loves a good snuggle with a great book. It’s one of our favourite things to do together.

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