The Importance of Reading to Children

There are many important benefits of reading to children, and encouraging reading in children. Not only does reading spark imagination that will stay with your children for the rest of their life, but reading creates the basis of the learning and academic abilities that will be taken into adulthood. This post with highlight the main benefits of reading, and will also discuss some interesting findings that In The Book found when researching the importance of reading to children.

Benefits of Reading to Children

Reading is Fun

A fantastic quote from Dr Seuss states: “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go”. By reading books, your child is almost guaranteed to explore their imagination, learn about emotion, character and morals. Through reading, kids begin to love learning new things. One of the most important things that reading to children introduces is the idea that reading isn’t a task, it is a fun activity for them to enjoy throughout their life.

Skill Development

From fiction to nonfiction through many different genres, reading to children will introduce them to many different environments and characters. Using books to explain situations that children may face or to explain something they don’t quite understand can aid development of communication and learning skills. Books give children the opportunity to explore different cultures, ethics and emotions.

Because children learn languages during infancy, reading to a child from a young age can greatly improve speech skills. Listening to parents or teachers read and practising word and sentence pronunciation themselves, their language skills will come on leaps and bounds.

Everyone remembers the fear of standing up and reading in class. This can be reduced and completely removed through reading practice and familiarity with books and words. Building up their reading ability at home will also build up their confidence in school and social environments.

Bonding

Reading to your child is an incredible way to spend time with them and bond. Routinely spending time with your little one, perhaps every evening at bedtime or before dinner every night, is a great way to build stability in your relationship with your kid. At the end of the day, watching your child learn and grow while spending time with them often will bring you both closer together.

Academic Achievement

This is where the research kicks in. Incredibly, research has been conducted that shows that 77% of children who can read at second-eighth grade level at the beginning of third grade will graduate from high school. Only 27% of children reading below this level will graduate (Lynn Fielding, The 90% Reading Goal, 1998).

Even more interesting, studies have concluded that reading to a child for 20 minutes a day from birth can increase their chance of a high reading level in third grade, and ultimately high school graduation. However, additional findings showed that when that chance increases by two thirds, the child’s estimated lifetime earnings also increase - some by up to $220,000. If you adjust these findings that were taken in 1998 to 2018 with inflation, this number rises to $500,000.

Researchers at In The Book recently conducted a survey to see how many parents were actually reading to their children for this suggested time of 20 minutes per day. Shockingly the results showed that only 18% of new parents were.

Crucially, the take home point of this post is: read! Read to your children to improve academic potential, social and communication skills, confidence and your bond with them as they grow. Reading is a phenomenal way to help your child develop and learn and could provide them with the inspiration and imagination they need and they will utilise for the rest of their life. If you are hesitant about reading with your child, see my previous post on tips to develop children’s love for books.

This is a Guest post by In The Book.

Image by Виктория Бородинова from Pixabay