5 Benefits and Importance of Reading to Your Children

Psychologically, reading is one of the healthiest forms of play. It is one of those life skills if picked up early encourages children to become self-sufficient and develop resources within themselves so that they can enjoy their leisure time when playmates are not available. Such resources will be valuable throughout life.

Reading will also enhance your child’s vocabulary as well as mathematical skills. It's a great activity for all ages, as it improves the overall health and well-being of a person. Young children especially enjoy being read to stories about familiar people and animals. They derive great enjoyment from hearing about what they do, how their bodies function, or what makes them hot or cold.

Children also prefer books with heroes or heroines shown as main characters with strong personalities or qualities that they admire and would like to possess. Another strong preference they have is for happy endings. Not, the simple (fairy tale) type "happily ever after" but more towards a story that ends with a deep sense of hope rather than resignation.

5 Benefits of Reading to Your Children and A Parent’s Role in Creating a Reader

Reading is a great way to bond with your child. To encourage good reading habits start by adding it to your daily routine and at the same time inculcate it as a fun activity and not a chore. Repeat it every day around the same time. So, your child develops a natural interest in reading.

When books are introduced at an early age, it can help improve communication skills, vocabulary, develop a good memory, and also improve social, emotional, and listening skills.

Reading relaxes the body and brain. Hence many parents read to their children just before bedtime. Listening to your voice soothes the child naturally, calms him down, and helps him fall asleep while you're still reading.

It is a great way to build early literacy and mathematical skills. The more words and numbers your baby or toddler is exposed to the better prepared he will be to eventually start reading on his own and do well in school.

Reading to your child triggers their imagination, encourages their creativity and expands their understanding of the world. Your expressions, rhythmic movements with your hands, and different voices for different characters is how you keep your child engaged. This attitude will help build a positive association and foster a love for reading for years to come.

*Bonus Point - Children who enjoy reading, broaden their interests, and acquire new knowledge through reading are laying the foundations for their own creative activities. It provides them with insight into their own problems and offers clues to how best to solve them.

Now that I have covered the benefits and importance of reading to your children. Let me suggest some books to help you kick-start this activity at the earliest.

For babies below one year - Books that use puppets, finger play, peek-a-boo, or props can be a great choice to keep your infant curious and occupied. It can help spark your child's imagination, and also help develop your child's sensory and motor skills. Click on this link for more details.

For a one-year-old - Board books with large images, color, contrast, and those that are visually appealing is a great choice. I bought a set of 10 small books that were easy to carry around; with large, brightly colored pictures of familiar objects, animals, birds, alphabets, numbers, shapes, fruits, and colors. These books help the child relate to the world around them. They were all hardcover, so I had no worries of the pages getting ripped and were also easy to flip through for the baby.

For a two-year-old - Now is a good time to introduce the classic nursery rhymes and musical playbooks. We received both as birthday gifts and are truly grateful for the joy our child gets in pressing the buttons to hear the rhymes over and over again. He's even memorized most of them and is also learning to recognize words by sight. Here's the list of books shown in the image that my two years old owns as of now.

My First Bible - https://amzn.to/3bKDdTg

Little Bunny's Bible - https://amzn.to/301L36D

Aesop's Fables - https://amzn.to/3bKWmo4

The Very Hungry Caterpillar - https://amzn.to/32jNSl2

Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes - https://amzn.to/2RsAXad

My First Board Book of Safety, Opposites, Human Body - https://amzn.to/32fIzD0

Peekaboo Zoo! - https://amzn.to/2GPifYa

Treasury of Akbar-Birbal Stories - https://amzn.to/3hls38E

My First Library (set of ten) - https://amzn.to/32kmOSk

Panchatantra - https://amzn.to/2ZrILN

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* Panchatantra (The stories were okay-okay, I wish I had bought this one instead)

When should I start reading to my baby?

I would suggest as early as possible. Starting from your pregnancy till the time your child becomes an independent reader. Reading once a day should be set in your daily routine.

Personally, when I was pregnant, I was reading a lot of bible verses related to birth. Listening to childbirth in the glory and loudly affirming to my child in the womb some powerful birth affirmations. Oh! What a blessed assurance, I received from doing these two activities daily. Praise the Lord for his infinite mercies during and after pregnancy.

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After delivery, the first two months are very hectic for both the mother and baby. So, these two months can be excluded while you adjust to the new schedule and routine. But the third month onward you should start reading books to your baby.

If your infant reaches out to hold the book or eat the book, let him touch it this is his way of saying - 'I am interested in this activity.' You may also find your baby responding by making a lot of cooing sounds, moving his arms and legs, and developing senses to reciprocate.

Read with a lot of expressions and modulate your voice according to the different characters in the book. Even if the attention span of your child is limited to less than 5 mins. Do it every day - make it your daily goal. It will sharpen his memory and with time increase his interest in reading.

Learning to read is a process that begins from the moment your child starts listening to language. Teachable moments can happen spontaneously when as parents you are alert and ready to help your child explore. Like in a conversation the kid asks you to read what's written on an Amazon parcel box you received or the contents written behind his favorite cereal box.

That's the teachable moment right there - he's exploring and reading the environmental print around him. Also, when the child notices everyone in the house is reading books, he too gets interested and considers it as the norm.

Teach your children the sound of the letters i.e. phonics. Ask your child to identify the letter and then the sound it makes this is a technique used to teach reading. Soon they will start to identify sight words and rhyming words. Correct and appreciate their every effort as they slowly and painfully gain confidence in their ability to read. The next set of books that I'm planning to invest in are as follows. They are an ideal resource to improve letter recognition, letter sounds, and spelling to help children in building their language skills.

*Do like and share in the comments below the name of the book you are currently reading to your toddler.

If you enjoyed this, you might want to check out my other book reviews.