Beyond its fun aspect, the reading benefits your child’s mental health. Encouraging daily reading in children is not just limited to giving them the confidence of “I can read” but helping them imbibe the goodness that every quality content brings. Reading transports a child from their world to another. Flipping the pages of a book, they get immersed in the lives of fictional characters or true events and learn about different cultures, all while gaining knowledge of new words and phrases, experiencing a range of emotions, and acquiring treasured skills.
Top 5 Benefits of Reading on Child Development
The benefits of reading cannot be underestimated. Parents and teachers must ensure that reading is a key part of children’s daily routines as it fosters:
Developing Empathy
When a child reads a book, they put themselves in the story. This fantasy world breeds empathy as they experience the highs and lows of the characters or identify with how they are feeling. This newly developed understanding of empathizing translates to the real world with real people. Moreover, children acquire a deeper connection with emotions, which helps them recognize their own emotions and of others, thereby dramatically enhancing their social development.
Aided Cognitive Development
How a child perceives and thinks about the world in reference to their reasoning, intelligence, language development, and information processing is called cognitive development. Reading provides children with a deeper understanding of their world. It grants them background knowledge that can be used to make sense of what they hear, see, and read, aiding cognitive development.
Gaining A Deeper Understanding
A book allows a child to transcend different cities, countries, or even an alternative world. Children learn about people, events, and places they could not learn otherwise. These children develop into better humans with a deeper understanding of the world around them.
Building Stronger Relationships
In addition to self-reading, parents can also develop a habit of reading with their children. When parents read with a child regularly, they develop a stronger relationship. Additionally, it fills the child with warmth as they feel attention, love, and reassurance from their parents.
Memory and Attention Span
The benefits of reading include better recalling, comprehending, and concentrating. These skills are crucial and often hindered by digital technology. Today, kids are glued to smartphones and tablets that provide instant gratification on command, diminishing their cognitive abilities and dramatically reducing their attention span.
Top 5 Benefits of Reading on Children’s Education
Regular reading develops a strong connection with the activity. Studies prove a strong relationship between a love of reading and literacy proficiency.
Improved Literary Skills
Developing a keen interest in reading requires parents’ participation. When a parent reads aloud with young children, it gives them the skills needed to read by themselves. Reading to children in the earliest months of their lives enhances language acquisition and stimulates the part of their brain that processes language. “I Can Read” helps children in stage through the required steps. The interests acquired via reading at an early stage of life improve literary skills throughout their lives.
Extensive Vocabulary
Reading exposes children to a range of new phrases and vocabulary they would otherwise miss. Regular reading helps them learn new words every single day. An improved vocabulary is certainly a great contribution to a child’s education. “I Can Read” provides vocabulary practices very well to students.
Ability to Concentrate on Academic Subjects
Consistent reading enhances a child’s concentration abilities. When you read out to your toddler, they develop a habit of sitting still and listening attentively, which will immensely benefit them in their schooling. Also, self-reading develops a habit of immersing oneself in the plot, which boosts concentration power. This habit will help them when they study academic subjects.
Higher Levels of Imagination
Reading a book pushes your child to use their imagination to imagine characters, guess what would follow next, and visualize the settings and environment. This developed imagination fosters greater creativity in children to brainstorm ideas in their heads and perform better.
Promotes Achievement
Reading promotes achievement in every subject, not just English. Good readers tend to achieve outshining grades across the curriculum due to better concentration, imagination, and more profound knowledge.
How to Promote Regular Reading in Children?
Adopt the following measures to inculcate the habit of regular reading in children:
- Start young: Begin reading out to your toddler when they can look at pictures and listen to your voice. Besides developing a keen interest in reading, this practice will promote visual and auditory retention, thus, more information and understanding of real-world objects.
- Encourage variation: Once your child can read, try to vary the books as much as possible. Acquainting the child with a range of cultures and characters allows their imagination to thrive.
- Healthy discussions: To encourage your child even further, consider trying to keep them engaged after they have read. You can ask questions about what they have read. You can also discuss the positivities associated with the plot.
- Enrol in a reading program: You can find several online reading programs that encourage reading in children in a consistent and structured manner.
Final Thoughts
Reading is a powerful and rewarding activity. A good book is the best of friends, teachers, and comforters. Regular reading brings along a myriad of benefits, and this habit is something every parent and teacher must encourage. Students with the help of “I Can Read” can master reading and get benefits of reading and this will make their communication skills stronger. For more details on this matter, you can visit the website of “I Can Read”.