The benefit of reading stories to children

The best gift you can give your child is to start reading to them from a young age, long before they can understand or read the word themselves. These will help children develop a good working vocabulary before they begin school. When children listen to stories, they make a connection between words and phrases in their minds.

Over time children will be able to articulate their needs, wants, and frustrations as they have developed to communicate and process their emotions through the stories they hear or read which will overall build their confidence. 

Research shows that children who hear stories in the first five years of life have over 1.4 million advantages over children who did not.

 

 Benefits of reading to children

The benefit of reading to children cannot be over-emphasised, reading stories is highly effective in transmitting valuable learning to children. Below are some benefits of reading to children

• • • Builds vocabulary

Children who hear stories have significantly more developed vocabularies than other children, this puts them at an intellectual advantage and helps them cope better in their day-to-day relations

• • • Develops language patterns

Children learn languages by listening to others speak, so when you read to children, they begin to understand languages and structure and with time, begin to mimic what they have heard.

Continuous reading of stories to children gives them a sense of vocabulary and this helps them develop good speaking skills and grammar usage

• • • Develop uncommon vocabulary

When you read to children, they are exposed to uncommon and unusual words that are often not heard in our everyday languages, the more children are exposed to reading, the richer their vocabulary becomes

• • • Develop thinking skills

As children grow older, while you are reading to them, they are thinking, so its the best time to ask them questions and develop their critical thinking skills

• • • Become problem solver

When children are reading aloud or listening to stories, ask them questions, asking children questions will help stimulate their critical thinking as they try to analyze what you are reading to them. Ask them critical questions, like ‘‘what is the moral of the story’’, ‘‘what is the best thing to do in such a situation’’ hence they will move from passive listeners to an engaged listener and problem solvers

• • • Develop empathy

When children hear stories about other people, cultures, and places unlike their own, they begin to imagine what life is like outside their world which leads to the ability to imagine possibilities outside their own experience thereby building empathy

• • • Builds imaginations

Listening to stories stimulates children’s imaginations and curiosity, when children hear stories, they visualize the scenario, the characters, and the settings in their mind which help develop their imaginative skills.

 The vivid imagination of the stories encourages children to explore ideas and create experiences hence, becoming problem solvers

 

• • • Improves listening skills

Reading to children helps to boost children’s attention span especially, through stories with songs of the character, watch out for my upcoming article as I will be sharing with you some fun stories with songs 

It could be quite challenging to hold a child’s attention for an extended period as their thoughts could wander. That is why children should be introduced to reading earlier as it is crucial in improving their listening skills and sharpening their focus.

Does reading help relieve stress?

• • • Reading is relaxing, it allows the brain to tune from the world and focus on a task like meditation
    • Reading reduces stress level
    • It lowers the heart rate and slackens the muscles
    • Reading reduces stress and helps children develop more active imaginations