I am very passionate about instilling a love of books within children. Books have a wonderful way of helping with children’s development. Within the world of books, you can find imagination and creativity with a side of fiction plus reality depending upon which books your child is reading. While reading books can be fun, there’s more to reading than pure entertainment value. I am sharing 5 reasons why books are important for a child’s development today to open your mind to making books a daily part of your child’s life.
When you open up a book to read to your child, it creates a quality bonding moment for you both. During this time of reading aloud with your child, they can be snuggled up to you while you dive into a story. This moment will be one that your child cherishes for years to come and in turn, will create a tradition that they pass down to their children in the future. Even if they play quietly near you while you read aloud, they will be gaining concentration skills and building beautiful memories of books and reading together.
One of the things we love about Sonlight and using a Literature based curriculum is you have years of building these bonds and memories over great books with your children.
Reading books opens your child’s mind to a whole new world of vocabulary. Books showcase a wide range of words that your child may not use or hear every day. When you incorporate reading into your child’s daily life, it helps them develop a higher level of words to use in their everyday conversations. As you read, your child may ask what words mean, take time to explain the definitions and talk about what your child is reading.
A few of the books that we have loved over the years while homeschooling are:
In Grandma’s Attic
Dolphin Adventure
The Hundred Dresses
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Red Sails to Capri
Walk the World’s Rim
Indian Captive – The Story of Mary Jemison
They Loved to Laugh
There are so many other books I could list here, but we wanted to share a few favorites that have made a lasting impression.
If you have a child who suffers from anxiety, emotions, feelings or any trauma, there is a book that you can find to read to them about this topic. Children’s books have an excellent way to help minimize the scariness of things in your child’s life so that they are less anxious about a new experience. Books can help your child develop a higher acceptance of new experiences and changes.
Many children who had books read to them from a young age will rank higher in academics and are more apt to be successful later in life. Reading expands your child’s brain development by enhancing their vocabulary usage as well as language skills. When reading books, your child learns how to speak correctly to others, in all sorts of situations from basic manners to having conversations on a variety of subject matters. Plus, it is great for expanding your child’s imagination.
Reading books to and with your child will help enhance their ability to focus more. When you read aloud to your kids, they are listening to the person reading to have a solid understanding of what the book is about. Whether you read aloud to your children or they read independently, reading helps children develop a higher awareness of focus and good listening skills. Among other things.
There you have it, 5 reasons why books are important for a child’s development. Each stage of children from newborn to toddler, and elementary to high school may change the genre and difficulty level of the books your child reads, but that won’t stop them from developing essential skills. Children of all ages will learn to develop stronger focus, increased intelligence, creativity and more awareness of the world around them when they dive into reading great books.
We have shared many reasons Why Books are Important for a Child’s Development and Why Reading is Important. I hope these tips and ideas for reading help you pass your love for books and reading down to your children.
Studies have shown that if you like this, you will also love the following articles. I have pulled them together for you right here!
Blog
05/11/2023
It’s undeniable that a child’s reading skills are important to their success in school, work, and life in general. And it is very possible to help ensure your child’s success by reading to them starting at a very early age. Continue reading to learn more about the top benefits of reading to children and how reading can support them for the future.
Whether you’re reading a classic novel or fairy tales before bed, reading aloud to children can significantly benefit your child’s life. Some benefits reading to children include:
Reading to young children is proven to improve cognitive skills and help along the process of cognitive development. Cognitive development is the emergence of the ability to think and understand; it’s “the construction of thought processes, including remembering, problem solving, and decision-making, from childhood through adolescence to adulthood” (HealthofChildren.com). It refers to how a person perceives and thinks about his or her world through areas such as information processing, intelligence, reasoning, language development, attention span, and memory.
When you begin reading aloud to your child, it essentially provides them with background knowledge on their young world, which helps them make sense of what they see, hear, and read. According to the IRA/NAEYC position statement (1998) “It is the talk that surrounds the reading that gives it power, helping children to bridge what is in the story and their own lives,” rather than just the vocalization of the words. Introducing reading into your young child’s life, and the conversations that it will prompt, helps them to make sense of their own lives, especially at a young age.
This study of early brain development explains “In the first few years of life, more than 1 million new neural connections are formed every second.” Consider this citation from a study on toddlers’ cognitive development as a result of being read aloud to: “A child care provider reads to a toddler. And in a matter of seconds, thousands of cells in these children’s growing brains respond. Some brain cells are ‘turned on,’ triggered by this particular experience. Many existing connections among brain cells are strengthened. At the same time, new brain cells are formed, adding a bit more definition and complexity to the intricate circuitry that will remain largely in place for the rest of these children’s lives.”
Therefore, 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.
Reading daily to young children, starting in infancy, can help with language acquisition, communication skills, social skills, and literacy skills. This is because reading to your children in the earliest months stimulates the part of the brain that allows them to understand the meaning of language and helps build key language, literacy and social skills.
In fact, a recent brain scan study found that “reading at home with children from an early age was strongly correlated with brain activation in areas connected with visual imagery and understanding the meaning of language” (TIME.com)
These cognitive skills and critical thinking skills are especially important when you consider that, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, more than one in three American children start kindergarten without the skills they need to learn to read. About two-thirds of children can’t read proficiently by the end of the third grade.
Furthermore, while a child will be able to latch onto vocabulary and language he or she hears around him or her, introducing reading into their auditory learning provides another benefit: it introduces the language of books, which differs from language heard in daily life. Whether it’s a children’s book or classic novel, book language is more descriptive, and tends to use more formal grammatical structures.
Early reading with your child is a true one-on-one opportunity for children to communicate with their parents and parents to communicate with their children. It allows children to grow their vocabulary skills with exposure to new words and listening skills they develop from hearing someone read to them that become vital to their academic success.
Studies have shown that “the more words that are in a child’s language world, the more words they will learn, and the stronger their language skills are when they reach kindergarten, the more prepared they are to be able to read, and the better they read, the more likely they will graduate from high school” (PBS.org).
Numerous studies have shown that students who are exposed to reading before preschool are more likely to do well when they reach their period of formal education. According to a study completed by the University of Michigan, there are five early reading skills that are essential for development. They are:
While children will encounter these literacy skills and language development once they reach elementary school and beyond, you can help jumpstart their reading success by reading to them during infancy and their early toddler years.
While they won’t be able to practice fluency or phonics at that stage, they will get an earlier introduction to phonetic awareness, vocabulary and reading comprehension, all of which will set them up for success as they grow and interact with the world around them.
It goes without saying that reading to your young child on a regular basis can help you forge a stronger relationship with them. When it comes to children, one of the most important things you can do to positively influence their development is spend time with them. Reading to your children provides a great opportunity to set up a regular, shared event where you can look forward to spending time together. With shared reading, your child will trust and expect that you will be there for them. The importance of trust to small children cannot be overstated.
Reading a favorite book to your children not only helps you bond with them, but also gives your children a sense of intimacy and well-being. This feeling of intimacy helps your child feel close to you, and the feelings of love and attention encourage positive growth and development.
With babies specifically, although they may not be able to understand what you’re saying when you read to them, reading aloud provides a level of invaluable nurturing and reassurance. Very young babies love to hear familiar voices, and reading is the perfect outlet to create this connection.
At a broader, more scientific level, it’s the parent-child relationship, nurturing relationships between caregivers and children that set a positive life course. If you are able to read aloud with your child at a predictable, scheduled time that fits with the daily routines of home and school, you’ll be able to provide something constant that they can expect and likely even look forward to.
Reading aloud together and having a shared activity gives you and your child something to talk about, which in turn supports the development of reading and writing skills (per the vocabulary and reading comprehension areas of development mentioned above). And down the road, reading together can be used to discuss real-life experiences and issues. A children’s book can provide springboards to meaningful discussions about many different topics which can further develop a child’s critical thinking skills.
At its core, literature is one of the best ways to help kids understand something without necessarily having to experience it for themselves. Reading to your child helps to expose them to all types of subjects and concepts, building our children’s understanding of humanity and the world around them (ReadBrightly.com).
Introducing regular reading time into your child’s schedule has another benefit outside of creating shared time together: increased discipline and concentration. Very young children rarely sit still for long, and it’s oftentimes difficult to get them to focus. But when you introduce regular reading to your children, you may start to observe a change in behavior. Toddlers may initially squirm and become distracted during story time, but eventually they’ll learn to stay put for the duration of the book.
According to EarlyMoments.com, along with reading comprehension comes “a stronger self-discipline, longer attention span, and better memory retention, all of which will serve your child well when she enters school.”
Young children naturally have a capacity to dream big and use their imaginations. Reading aloud to your child helps them use their imaginations to explore people, places, times, and events beyond their own experiences. Reading as an imaginative activity can open 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 life in the future.
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 the key for lifelong learning, and if you can instill a love of reading at an early age, then a commitment to lifelong learning is sure to follow. Reading aloud presents books as sources of pleasant, valuable, and exciting experiences. Children who value books are motivated to read on their own, and will likely continue to practice independent reading throughout the rest of their lives.
When it comes to reading to your children, the benefits to your child’s life range far beyond the development of a close bond with them, although that’s certainly one of them. Reading aloud to children is truly the single-most important activity for building these understanding and skills essential for reading success that your child will carry with them all throughout their life.
To learn more about our resources for children, visit our website.
Want more information on metalized paper, metalized label, wet-strength paper? Feel free to contact us.