The Wonder of Reading: Why Reading to Your Child is Important

We all want our little ones to maximise their creative potential, but how can we encourage this? Here you will find everything you need to know about the benefits of reading to your child.

Reading from an early age not only encourages a lifelong love for reading, but builds a bond between you and your child, boosts language skills, teaches new ways of expression, encourages concentration and improves listening skills. These are all skills that are beneficial to a child’s well-being and development.

Early Years: 0 to 4

Board Books:

From just a few months old, infants can look at pictures, recognise your voice, and express an interest in touch. At this age, books are your best friend! A great start can be sensory black and white board books for up to 6 months – these help to develop their optic nerves and encourage cognitive development.

Introduce colourful books after a few months to further stimulate their minds and your little one’s vision. A great activity for you is to read out loud to your child, especially with fun voices that match animals and characters in the book. The sound of your voice becomes familiar very early on, and by making reading a frequent activity with them, they will find comfort not only in your voice but in the pages of a book.

Crinkle Cloth Books:

These books provide lots of stimulation and entertainment, packed with bright colours, mirrors, squeakers and rattles. The different textures will help develop their tactile, fine motor skills and hand/eye coordination.

Touch and Feel Books:

Touch and Feel books are perfect for exploring senses with textures, pull-out characters and lift-up flaps for peek-a-boo play on a page. While introducing words and sounds to their vocabulary enriching their memory and continuously building their fine motor skills.

Reading Development: 4 years +

By the time your child starts going to school, this is prime time to start reading books with more words and sentences associated with pictures and encouraging them to read to you. With loads of lovely stories to choose from, there’s bound to be something your little one will love!

Try visiting your local bookshop and letting your child choose a few stories for bedtime.

This gives them independence and allows them to feel free in choosing their own reading material and explore what might interest them.

Independent Reading: 7 years +

At this age, your child may be expressing their interest in reading more advanced books!

There are some fantastic junior fiction books out there to choose from, and this is the perfect opportunity to let them loose in the bookshop. It can be easy to fall into the habit of reading what’s familiar, but this might mean that your child could be reading below their reading level.

We always want to encourage children to branch out and try something new. With lots of books on shelves, encourage your child to read a different genre, or talk to a bookseller or librarian about their favourite stories recently and what they might recommend based on your child’s age and interests – they are a fountain of book knowledge.

Building Bonds

One of the biggest benefits of reading to your child is the bond it creates with not only the parents but with stories. Children will soak up pretty much anything – if they see the parents deep in their favourite book, they’ll want to know what all the fuss is about – and we can’t blame them! Take some 1 on 1 time for you and your little one, cosy up in your favourite armchair, snuggle up, and lose yourselves in their next favourite story adventure.

Reading to your child even for as little as 10 minutes each day will encourage their imagination to explore different possibilities.

Relaxation and comfort

By giving your child your full attention during these moments, you are teaching them they matter and you are providing them comfort. They become used to your voice and spending quality time with them in a moment of peace makes them feel safe and loved whilst building self-esteem.

Sleep patterns

Creating that downtime and allowing a moment’s peace among all the chaos can aid in winding down from a busy day and encourage your little one to sleep. Rather than 10 minutes of screen time before bed, why not try a chapter or two of that new book you bought last week? It might just end up being a new favourite.

Benefits for the Family

Whilst this may be beneficial for your little one, the benefits don’t just stop there…

Allowing that downtime provides peace within the entire family and allows everyone to connect over a mutual love for literature. Has your older child recently fallen out of love with reading? Perhaps try to encourage them to join the family fun and listen in on the stories, it might just remind them of when they were in their siblings’ shoes.

Reading as a family also portrays reading in a positive light, and teaches children that reading is something to be enjoyed and provides peace after a busy day.

Making Time

Now, we all know making time to squeeze in a little bit of reading can be quite a challenge with incredibly busy lives. This is why bedtime makes the perfect downtime for you and your little one.

Try starting bedtime 10-15 minutes early and settle in with the colourful pages of a book, this will aid your child in winding down from their day, and associate reading with peace and comfort.

So rather than 10 minutes of screen time before bed, a book can make a great alternative to stimulate their minds and have some fun before bed.

And there you have it, reading to your child from an early age has several benefits. From developing concentration skills to listening skills, or just generally establishing a stronger bond within the family.

Happy reading!

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