Every parent is encouraged to read to his or her child starting at a young age, but not all do it regularly. Those who fail to read to their children miss out on great benefits. Here are 3 benefits to reading aloud to your child from infancy.
Reading aloud is one of the best ways to encourage early reading. Powerful research supports the idea that children who learn to read earlier are more likely to succeed academically and have higher grades. The child will have a love for learning and reading from a young age that enables them to excel in their schooling and makes them more confident in the classroom.
Another benefit to early reading is that the child has a better ability to concentrate and has a longer attention span. When children learn to entertain themselves with a book, rather than a fast paced TV show, they learn the value of concentrating on something for a longer period of time.
In order to teach early reading to the child, the child must be read aloud to daily. The reading foundation recommends reading to your child 20 minutes a day, starting in their first year of life. This is the best thing that you can do to encourage your child to read early.
Another benefit of reading to your child is a larger vocabulary. Even though you might think you are talking to your child normally, many parents tend to do baby talk, or modified talking to help the child understand. As you read books that have new words, children’s picture books or books that are written in rhyme, it introduces new sounds to the child from a young age. They will begin to understand and comprehend more complex words, and in turn have a larger vocabulary.
One of the best benefits of reading to your child is the relationship that you get. Reading can be very calming and fun for the child. They will begin to look forward to the time that you sit together and read. If you are following the direction from the reading foundation of 20 minutes a day, you will get a substantial amount of time each day given solely to the child for snuggling and bonding through reading.
For these reasons, and many more, parents should be reading aloud to their children everyday. The child is more likely to become an early reader, have a larger vocabulary and build a stronger relationship with the parent.