What happens during the first few years sets the stage for the rest of a child’s life. Spending time together while reading aloud helps to create strong parent-child bonds and promotes healthy brain development. Children that are read to more often have improved language and listening skills, experience stronger emotional connections to their loved ones, and gain a lifelong love of reading.
Experiencing and engaging in language-rich interactions helps children develop communication skills, patience, empathy, and literacy—all of which are critical to success in school and beyond. Even the simple act of handling books develops school readiness in infants. Additional positive effects of reading together include:
Better recognition of sounds and letters
Knowledge of a wider range of vocabulary
Increased listening skills
A deeper understanding of how stories work
When we read with our young ones, we help grow their curiosity and memory. Stories transport them to places and times they have never experienced, enhancing their understanding of the world. Holding a child close while reading can help them manage moments of anxiety and create a positive association with reading that endures throughout their lives.