The benefits of reading aloud to children have been proven at home and when preparing for school. Beyond that, it helps develop language and literacy skills overall.
Children need so much to grow into healthy adults. And this doesn’t only mean nutrition and safety. Cognitive health and social skills are a large part of your child’s development, along with mental and emotional stability.
When it comes to reading, it’s been found that reading aloud to children works much better than pushing them to read on their own. And here is what we’ve learned from science.
What are the benefits of reading aloud to children?
There are many benefits of reading aloud that you might not know. In fact, there are many skills needed before children start reading and writing in school. Let’s take a look at some of the major benefits of reading aloud to kids.
1. Cognition strength
A child when read to from a well-written book is exposed to sophisticated language. As they listen to more and more of this type of writing, they learn to use the same cognitive skills to understand the text in the books and in future reading materials.
Building strong cognition helps the child get a head start on learning in school, as they can already recognize complex words and situations.
2. Recognizing individual letters
Children start to recognize letters of the alphabet when listening to someone read to them. They correlate the sounds of various letters in the text to the same sounds they learn when practicing the alphabet with others.
During the story, children can single out these phonemes, helping with memory. This is vital information when sounding out the letter names of people, places, or objects. The process helps children avoid future difficulties in the association between sounds and letters.
3. Understand story structure
Before reading or listening to stories, children don’t understand the structure of a tale. All stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end. When reading aloud to children, they begin to understand how this structure works, and how it is properly organized according to the events.
4. Children learn to read quicker
One of the benefits of reading aloud to children is that it promotes the quick ability to read.
For example, toddlers who listen to nursery rhymes are more sensitive to recognizing alliteration. Preschoolers then quickly connect to rhyme and alliteration, and because of this, they learn how to read and write quicker in grade school. Reading aloud helps parents naturally instill language skills in their kids.
5. Improves the attention span
Reading aloud to children improves their attention span. The longer they can sit and enjoy storytime, the more patient they will be later on in school and as adults. With this increase in attention span, focus and concentration will also increase.
6. Improved memory
While the memory of a particular book may not be permanent, the benefits of reading aloud do include overall memory improvements. The association between characters and places in stories leaves an imprint on a child.
Considering the brain is continually developing, memory is always improving. Also, the child’s character is still developing until the age of seven. Through reading aloud, children absorb information and store it away for later by associating the story with the voice, the atmosphere, and their emotions.
Practice reading aloud
There are many benefits of reading aloud to children, proven by science. Being able to reference back to what you’ve read helps children fondly remember the story. However, to reflect on the books you’ve read to your child, using reading log templates may help.
These templates allow you to catalog important books, document integral parts of the story, and record references. When children are curious about previous stories, this record helps sort out the facts. It provides aspects of the story that the child may want to revisit.
To sum up, the benefits of reading aloud to children are obvious in both home environments and the classroom. It helps them grow and keeps them interested in reading. And through reading, we’re continually learning.
That’s what’s most important.
Well, this is a big plus for parents who engage their children with reading process. It’s really important for children to start earlier because if they do it later they can have some obstacles. At the same time, the right method must be applied successfully as your child needs to be interested in doing it. Moreover, you spend more time with children that make them develop socially.
I read to all of my children, but more so with my first child. They love to interact with the story too. And I do think this is just one of the things that build great character.