Reading has been an important part of a child’s overall development. From ages bedtime stories are enjoyed and appreciated by family, specially by the little one’s. There are some more developmental benefits of reading to children, as they start imagining the world by just being a part of family bedtime stories. Benefits of reading to your child are far too many, and the earlier we start the better it is for them. Even at infant stage the child shows a lot of interest and participation in listening to stories. It not only helps in building their attention at this early age, but also stimulates their brain activities.
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Children love hearing the sounds of stories and they start language processing in their early years. They begin developing imagination and start understanding the world in a better way. Their love for books and stories makes them learn ample new things quickly. Their logic develops a great deal and they are more and more involved in the story. Even neural research indicates a clear difference between the kids who have been read and the kids who do not have any reading or listening experience. Phonic processing of children who have been read to, is far advanced than their peers. They understand the different sounds and their roots in an extremely better way. Thus benefits of reading to children are far too many and we must adopt them early on in life.
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Benefits of reading to your child include:
1- Developing family bond:
Reading to your child helps in developing a strong family bond. It not only creates a lasting association but also, the child begins to relate all the worldly events in a more composite way. When parents make bedtime stories a habit, they are instilling a deep rooted love for words, language and logic in their kids. Children may have less parental time during the day, but bedtime stories or scheduled reading to your kids covers it up well. As a family the child learns the importance of reading together. This strengthens the family bond.
2- Reading to your kids helps in early language development:
Language development is the most important milestone for children. The sooner they begin processing words and differentiate between sounds, the better they get language skills. There are around 44 phonic sounds and understanding the differences between them is challenging even for 1st grade kids. But those kids who have been read to regularly, are better at these skills. They develop understanding of differences as early as less than a year. Subconsciously they absorb information on how to structure sentences. They even get a rich vocabulary and keep enhancing it further.
3- Reading to your kid helps in developing logic and brain:
Reading accelerates brain processing and the child begins to understand logic very early. Children not only listen just for language but also pay attention to sound language. Most rhyming words and specific sounds are tough to differentiate but when they are read by parents regularly, these become a part of the child’s system. They start processing and imagining what they have listened and even be a part of the stories they like.
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4- Reading to your child builds a rich vocabulary:
The more we read to our children the richer their vocabulary gets. With different bedtime stories and new words, children become well versed with them. Their understanding of the language and vocabulary gets enhanced quickly. Children most often get acquainted with new words and phonic sounds even before they actually start using in their own language. They subconsciously start learning the root words for vocabulary enrichment with rhymes and stories.
5- Importance of reading is well understood by the children who are read:
As children idolize and learn everything their parents do, reading to the children helps in making them understand the importance of books and language. Parents set examples for kids to adopt reading as an important part of their overall development. They start befriending books and this takes them a long way.
6- Reading to children helps in developing communication skills:
Children who are read to by their parents, get to develop great communication skills. They not only have command over the language skills but also their communication is far advanced for their age. Since their understating of words and sounds is more developed, they also have strong listening skills. They formulate their thoughts very well, before interacting. This is an extremely important skill, as communication is just not conveying but listening and then organizing thoughts to form a meaningful content too. Reading gives that edge to children, they have more control and command over their own thoughts
7- Reading to your child helps in academic excellence:
Children who are read to, have excellent academic performance. Their language development and understanding of world helps in their command over subjects. Not only in english but all other streams, they have better processing and understanding. Children develop an inner dictionary even before their peers get acquainted to sounds or phonics.
8- Reading to your child helps in developing self-confidence:
Self-confidence and self-esteem are extremely important for a child. They start finding themselves at a better pace of understanding the world around them. When they hear stories, they even imagine themselves in it, this helps in making them more aware of how things are. They speak better, they understand better and their imagination is way beyond the rest.This makes them have self-confidence in themselves. This is an attribute which will make the child develop great leadership skills ahead in life.
The above compilation on Benefits of reading to your child is based on my own experiences and learnings overtime. As a child, the daily bedtime stories with my granny have made me fall in love with books and now as a parent i feel pride in sharing them with my little one. More than bedtime reading, the strong bond that i developed with her is incredible. I still cherish those wonderful and enriching moments from my childhood as special memories.
Keep reading to your child and make them experience the unimaginable world of books filled with wonderful stories. As brain benefits of bedtime stories are far too many and we must ensure introducing the wonderful world of books to our little one’s early on in life.
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By Minu Manisha
