There is no one denying the fact that reading is one of the best habits you can have for leading a successful life. It is indeed a very good idea to start reading on a regular basis to your child to lay the foundation for his habit of reading.
Start reading to your child from infancy to develop his language skills and content knowledge.
Researches have shown that reading helps to stimulate portions of a child’s brain to develop his language, literacy, and social skills.
Besides spending fruitful time together, there are several other cons of reading to your child.
Here are 10 Reasons why you should make it a habit!
Reading keeps your child calm
Reading works as a therapy to calm thunderstorms in a child’s little head. It is a very useful tool to calm down his anxieties and restlessness.
There are many types of research that prove reading is beneficial for mental health. It relieves stress. 6 minutes of reading every day can slow down the heart rate and improve overall health.
You can read them stories or fun facts or anything which they are interested in to distract them.
Reading is a way of communication
While you read a book or any other piece of text to your child, you build a bridge to their heads. You can convey to them important lessons through reading.
A questioning round or discussion on the moral of the story or it’s characters will lead to enhanced communication between a parent and child.
Sometimes certain lessons can be very well taught to children through stories and anecdotes.
Reading gives him an exposure to language
Children develop knowledge of language when you read to them on a regular basis. It helps to develop their vocabulary.
Reading is very helpful in teaching the fundamentals of speech to children. Language is a prerequisite for any person to communicate.
Reading on a regular basis will develop a child’s phonological awareness as well. A child becomes able to manipulate words and their sounds and play with them.
The more they develop their command over a language, they will feel more confident in communicating and expressing themselves in it. It will increase a child’s fondness for language.
Reading builds concentration
When a child is into the habit of being read, it develops his concentration skills and interest in the content.
It not only encourages focus but also generates logical sequence building. A child’s brain is able to make connections and when he focuses well, he can create a cause and effect relationship between two variables.
Make it a practice to interact with each other after you finish reading or they can even ask you questions in between. This way they will pay more attention to what is been read to them and gradually it will become their habit.
Reading develops Imaginative skills
Reading promotes the creative development of children. It fosters their thinking skills. It helps them bring new ideas and think innovatively.
Research proves that reading stimulates the right side of the brain which is responsible for developing creative skills in a person.
It enables a child to discover new possibilities and builds a child’s cognitive skills. It is very important to have constructive imagination and ideas in life to combat the real-world competition.
Reading develops Listening skills
It is indeed very important to be a good listener in life. Only when you are a good listener, you will pay attention to other people.
A child who listens to his parents’ reading to him on a concurrent basis, automatically turns into a good listener.
Children who are good listeners become good communicators when they grow up. When your child listens to you carefully, he understands it better and is able to make better connections.
To encourage his listening trait, make reading an interactive session.
Reading raises your Child’s IQ
It is an established fact that reading is directly proportional to intelligence. The more you read, the smarter you are.
There are a lot of IQ tests that include vocabulary. While you read to your child, you are building his vocabulary and sense of words in a sentence.
It makes your child insightful and eases out his way a lot of times when he walks into the real world of competition.
Reading makes him perform better at school
Reading has a very big impact on the academic performance of children. Schools encourage reading to build a child’s overall portfolio.
It keeps a student aware of current affairs, strengthens his subject knowledge, and builds his awareness about social and economic factors.
We cannot deny that academic success is important to an extent and reading will make your child competent to address the challenges that grow with every grade.
Reading makes a Child Intellectual
Reading develops language, communication, social and emotional portions of a child’s personality. Collectively it leads to the cognitive development of a person.
Some texts offer situations, problems, and solutions. This makes a child think which is a very positive development. It enables a child to critically evaluate various alternatives to a situation.
Reading strengthens his concepts and understanding of them. They will be soon able to organize their thoughts and convey them to others with the right words and gestures.
Reading Aids Sleep
Make reading a bedtime ritual for putting your child to sleep. Research proves that regular practice of reading before going to bed eventually starts creating signals for indicating to your body that it’s time to wind up and rest.
Reading reduces the stress levels and anxieties of a child which helps him sleep better. And the benefits of getting a sound sleep are not unknown to us!
Bedtime stories do not only strengthen your bond with your child but it also helps in the development of your child’s brain.
Apart from building their content knowledge, while you read a portion of text to your child daily, you are building a knowledgeable bond and there is a part of your schedule every day that you spend with your little one in imparting him something resourceful.
The practice of reading to him every day that you start will become a part of his lifestyle when he grows up. The benefits he gets from these habits are the returns of all the time and energy you invest in reading to them now.
Happy Reading!
