Reasons to Read to Your Child at Any Age

Some of my happiest memories growing up are those of my mother reading to me. I loved curling up in her lap, her gentle voice taking me on adventures overseas, galaxies, and through time. I learned to associate reading with love, comfort and contentment. It’s no wonder that almost forty years later nothing is as wonderful to me as curling up with a cup of tea and a good book.I read to my children from birth, well into their teen years. We love to sit by the fireplace on a snowy afternoon, bundled in blankets, sipping hot drinks as we drift off to magical places.

When we think of reading to children, we often think of non readers or very young children. The benefits of reading to young children are many, but the benefits of reading to children of all ages are just as many.

When you read to your child, you show them how good reading looks and sounds. An excellent reader pays attention to the voice, pace and volume of the piece that’s being read. Learning to read with expression and properly project your voice is a skill that will stick with your child a lifetime. Hearing a proficient reader express themselves through tone of voice also helps children to learn vocabulary words. Listening to a good reader is entertaining, and fosters a love for reading in children.

Reading out loud to your child helps with comprehension. When you read out loud to a child, the experience takes on a whole new dimension. The listener can get a better feel for the voice of the writing and gain a completely different perspective than reading a book alone. Reading out loud gives parents time to ask questions and point out important elements in the story that may have gone unnoticed otherwise. This dialog also gives parents a chance to bond with their children and spend quality time together.

Reading out loud exposes children to a variety of vocabulary words that they may not experience reading a book that’s at their grade level. Children who are read to learn to listen and use their imaginations in a way that children in our technology crazed world seldom do. All of my children have vocabularies far beyond their peers, and I attribute that to the time spent reading together. Even children who have trouble reading themselves can enjoy and benefit from being read to on a regular basis.

In today’s world, our children are programmed to have extremely short attention spans and expect instant gratification. Reading out loud helps them to learn to focus for long periods of time and delay gratification as they wait for the adventure to unfold. Considering eight out of ten children will be diagnosed with ADHD at some point in their school careers, the benefits of reading out loud are needed more than ever. Children who suffer from executive brain function dysfunction or Autism can benefit from this as well. Read more homeschool curriculum packages.