Reading aloud to your child has a lot of benefits for both children as well as parents. It gives parents an opportunity to snuggle, cuddle and bond with their children while helping develop their visual senses, auditory perceptions, imagination, creativity and language skills. Read on to learn about how reading aids development in different stages of a child’s growth.Reading aloud to kids is an activity that involves much more than just helping your child make sense of the words in a book. It is an opportunity to take your little one on an exciting journey into the unknown. You can travel to new places, meet new people, and do new things together; all from the comfort of your home. Reading together gives you an opportunity to give your loved one your undivided attention while you share a blanket, laugh at comic bits, fall in love with heroic characters and hope to see villains fail. Help your child develop a lifelong habit of reading. Reading aloud to your child and motivating him to read on his own, helps him become a better reader, a better listener as well as a better student. Its helps cultivate and hone his language and vocabulary skills while also teaching him about sentence structuring and the connection between the oral and printed word. Reading aloud improves your child’s imagination and creativity by transporting him to special magical places in his mind. Reading to your children from the time they are infants, communicates the importance of reading. But it can also communicate that reading is a lot of fun! Read enthusiastically and try different inflections and tones in your voice for different characters to make your child enjoy books much more than any other television show or iPad game. Use loud and varied expressions, vocalisations and gestures to make storytelling a much-awaited activity for every day. Make a tradition out of bedtime reading. Choose a comfortable couch or bed; snuggle, cuddle and bond with your kid while reading aloud to them. In this articleInfant StageToddler StagePreschooler StageSchooling StageInitiating Discussions about The BookBenefits of Reading to Kids at Different Stages of their Lives Even before kids understand basic words, reading to them can benefit their early development. Read on to know how reading aids your child’s development from the time he is born: Infant Stage At this young stage, babies love being held close to their parents. Even though infants are unable to understand words, read aloud from books with colourful pictures while cuddling them close to you. Not only will the colourful pictures stimulate your baby’s sensory and brain development, but your calm voice will soothe and enchant your child. By the time your child becomes a year old, he will begin to associate book reading with love, bonding and colourful pictures. Toddler Stage At this stage, you are advised to read nursery rhymes and picture books to your children. Toddlers stand to understand a great deal from reading. It helps prepare your child for school. It helps them grasp the instruction of reading much faster and better when compared to children who are not exposed to reading prior to school. Let your child select the book to be read. Even though your child is too young to understand which book is which, letting him select the book makes him an active part in the story-telling process. Let him turn the pages and repeat certain words that you say in exactly the tone you use. Your child will learn that the pictures in books represent actual objects or living things. Use your finger to follow the words being read. This will help your child discover that the printed matter in books are words to be read and that any print is read from left-to-right and top-to-bottom. Preschooler Stage More than 50% of a child’s mature intelligence is developed by age four. It is no surprise then, that a child’s early years are termed as the formative years. Letting him select the book and imitating the tone or inflection in your voice while you read certain characters, will ensure that your child gets excited about reading instead of seeing it as some sort of dreadful chore. When you read aloud to your child, his auditory perception gets stimulated and begins developing, thereby enabling him to understand the sound of words. It also aids in your child’s language development. It improves your child’s limited vocabulary and helps him string words together to form long sentences. Ask questions to your kids after the story-telling is over. This will help hone and develop your child’s imagination and reasoning abilities. Schooling Stage At this stage of your child’s development, you will slowly move from reading to your kids, to reading with your kids. Reading will help arouse your child’s curiosity. It will make your child question fact as well as fantasy. Reading will help cultivate his ability to focus and boost his attention spans. Help your child develop a lifelong habit of reading and learn the art of patience. Reading will also expose your children to a wealth of emotions. Your child will learn to relate to emotions ranging from happiness and sadness, to anger and fear; and will also be better equipped to handle those emotions when they crop up in his own life. Giving your child a variety of different books, with different story types and characters will help him form his own thoughts and opinions in the future. Initiating Discussions about The Book As your child is still young, it will be hard to initiate a deep analysis of the story. Instead ask some questions such as "Did you like the ending of the story?" Although your child may answer with merely a nod or a word, these questions have forced your child to think about and question the stories and characters rather than just accepting the story the way it is. These little exercises will encourage him to be analytical when he grows up. Always remember that you as a parent should not be afraid to discuss your personal thoughts about the book to your child. However, while stating those thoughts, it is important to clarify to your child that there is no single correct way to look at any book and that every person, whether young or old has the right to decipher the meaning of the book in their own personal way.
Reading aloud to your child has a lot of benefits for both children as well as parents. It gives parents an opportunity to snuggle, cuddle and bond with their children while helping develop their visual senses, auditory perceptions, imagination, creativity and language skills. Read on to learn about how reading aids development in different stages of a child’s growth.Reading aloud to kids is an activity that involves much more than just helping your child make sense of the words in a book. It is an opportunity to take your little one on an exciting journey into the unknown. You can travel to new places, meet new people, and do new things together; all from the comfort of your home. Reading together gives you an opportunity to give your loved one your undivided attention while you share a blanket, laugh at comic bits, fall in love with heroic characters and hope to see villains fail.
Help your child develop a lifelong
habit of reading. Reading aloud to your child and motivating him to read on his own, helps him become a better reader, a better listener as well as a better student. Its helps cultivate and hone his language and vocabulary skills while also teaching him about sentence structuring and the connection between the oral and printed word. Reading aloud improves your child’s imagination and creativity by transporting him to special magical places in his mind.
Reading to your children from the time they are infants, communicates the importance of reading. But it can also communicate that reading is a lot of fun! Read enthusiastically and try different inflections and tones in your voice for different characters to make your child enjoy books much more than any other television show or iPad game. Use loud and varied expressions, vocalisations and gestures to make storytelling a much-awaited activity for every day. Make a tradition out of bedtime reading. Choose a comfortable couch or bed; snuggle, cuddle and bond with your kid while reading aloud to them.
Benefits of Reading to Kids at Different Stages of their Lives
Even before kids understand basic words, reading to them can benefit their early development. Read on to know how reading aids your child’s development from the time he is born:
Infant Stage
At this young stage, babies love being held close to their parents. Even though infants are unable to understand words, read aloud from books with colourful pictures while cuddling them close to you. Not only will the colourful pictures stimulate your baby’s sensory and
brain development, but your calm voice will soothe and enchant your child. By the time your child becomes a year old, he will begin to associate book reading with love, bonding and colourful pictures.
Toddler Stage
At this stage, you are advised to
read nursery rhymes and picture books to your children. Toddlers stand to understand a great deal from reading. It helps prepare your child for school. It helps them grasp the instruction of reading much faster and better when compared to children who are not exposed to reading prior to school. Let your child select the book to be read. Even though your child is too young to understand which book is which, letting him select the book makes him an active part in the
story-telling process. Let him turn the pages and repeat certain words that you say in exactly the tone you use. Your child will learn that the pictures in books represent actual objects or living things. Use your finger to follow the words being read. This will help your child discover that the printed matter in books are words to be read and that any print is read from left-to-right and top-to-bottom.
Preschooler Stage
More than 50% of a
child’s mature intelligence is developed by age four. It is no surprise then, that a child’s early years are termed as the formative years. Letting him select the book and imitating the tone or inflection in your voice while you read certain characters, will ensure that your child gets excited about reading instead of seeing it as some sort of dreadful chore. When you read aloud to your child, his auditory perception gets stimulated and begins developing, thereby enabling him to understand the sound of words. It also aids in your child’s language development. It improves your child’s limited vocabulary and helps him string words together to form long sentences. Ask questions to your kids after the story-telling is over. This will help hone and develop your child’s imagination and reasoning abilities.
Schooling Stage
At this stage of your child’s development, you will slowly move from reading
to your kids, to reading
with your kids. Reading will help arouse your child’s curiosity. It will make your child question fact as well as fantasy. Reading will help cultivate his ability to focus and boost his attention spans. Help your child develop a lifelong habit of reading and learn the art of patience. Reading will also expose your children to a wealth of emotions. Your child will learn to relate to emotions ranging from happiness and sadness, to anger and fear; and will also be better equipped to handle those emotions when they crop up in his own life. Giving your child a variety of different books, with different story types and characters will help him form his own thoughts and opinions in the future.
Initiating Discussions about The Book
As your child is still young, it will be hard to initiate a deep analysis of the story. Instead ask some questions such as "Did you like the ending of the story?" Although your child may answer with merely a nod or a word, these questions have forced your child to think about and question the stories and characters rather than just accepting the story the way it is. These little exercises will encourage him to be analytical when he grows up. Always remember that you as a parent should not be afraid to discuss your personal thoughts about the book to your child. However, while stating those thoughts, it is important to clarify to your child that there is no single correct way to look at any book and that every person, whether young or old has the right to decipher the meaning of the book in their own personal way.
