Why You Read to Your Child

One great piece of advice that all parents can attest to is that you should read to your children especially when they are young. This is often shared and emphasized in books, seminars, and through word of mouth. But when you agree and start to read to your children, are you familiar with the specific advantages they can gain? Do you know just what it is you are developing in them?

To give you a better idea of the power of reading, here are five benefits that highlight the importance of reading to young children.

• Basic speech and reading skills. At the preschool age, your child is at his prime for learning. He is very eager to explore his surroundings and absorb information. He jumps at the thought of seeing what words look like, learning how to say them, and hearing what they sound like. Reading to your child allows him to mimic you and to learn from your example, specifically by letting him say the word right after you read it. It also gives him the chance to experience how to read a book – how the words are separate from the images and how to read from left to right.

• Better communication skills. Stories and books, especially those suited for young children, are composed of numerous conversations and interactions between characters. By reading this and by regularly interacting with you during reading time, your child gets a better grasp of what happens when people communicate. He gets to expand his vocabulary which leads him to better express himself – be it through speaking or writing. Your child is also able to relate to more people since he is exposed to different topics and cultures through the varied stories he reads.

• More logical thinking skills. Each book or reading material your child reads consists of a message that needs to be uncovered. With this, your child thinks and makes use of logic to figure out what is happening and to make sense of the message. He develops the ability to grasp abstract concepts, to discover patterns, and to recognize cause and effect. At a young age and with your help, your child can begin to relate scenarios in books to what is happening in the real world. Engaging him in conversations that relate to the book can also help.

• Enhanced concentration and discipline. Reading requires your child to stay in one place and to devote time, effort, and focus on one activity for a period of time. With him being very energetic and playful at a young age, reading allows your child to develop concentration and discipline. He may squirm and be distracted at the start, but he will eventually learn to stay put – especially when he read books that interest him. Your child also develops longer attention span and better memory retention since he is engaged in an activity that simulates his brain.

• Academic excellence. Studies suggest that exposing your child to reading at a young age gives him a higher aptitude for learning. More often than not, he will not only excel in reading and English, but also in history, math, and science. This is because the ability to read and comprehend is a basic skill that is used in all subjects. Your child will need to comprehend a math problem before thinking of how to solve it. He will also need to read through what happened in history to understand its effect at present.

Indeed, reading has the power to benefit young children in a number of ways. As parents, reading to your child is one of the most important things you can do to build a solid and good foundation for his journey to academic excellence and success.