Most of us by adulthood have figured out that reading is a fundamental part of our life, it becomes something we do without thinking. Reading signs on the highway, a menu, or an e-mail for work. For children this is a skill that is taught and can have more benefits than just being able to read.
Reading from a young age has many benefits, including:
Studies show that children who read daily develop better-coping skills to manage their strong feelings and emotions properly. Books geared toward a specific problem they may be facing can help them learn to navigate difficult situations independently.
To connect their reality with their imagination, finding a good book that allows them to escape into a different world can help a child switch off for the day.
In short, yes. Learning to read regularly can help a child to understand and retain more in school and allow them to explore new topics they might find interesting.
Along with all of those benefits, a child reading regularly teaches them emotions. This helps your child to see the world through other people's eyes. For example, if someone in the story has experienced great loss, your child may feel very sad for that character. At times you may even find that your child cries along with the story. This gives your child the ability to connect and care for the people around them in a healthy way.
You might find that the best time to have your child spend time reading is in the evening, just before bed. Studies have shown that reading before bed can help create a healthier night's sleep, lower their blood pressure, and heart rate.
As children age, and they move up in the school system many things like self-esteem can become a huge factor in their everyday life. Reading can help to stop these symptoms, giving them something else in their life to look up to. Reading daily can help children to find other outlets for their emotions and teach them to express themselves in a healthy way.
Yes, regularly reading with your child can help to create a stronger bond between you and your child. This also helps them to associate reading with a happy feeling, or a feeling of being safe. Reading daily with your child from a young age helps them to associate reading with being a stress reliever for them.
They will carry that feeling throughout life and allow reading to be a form of coping for years to come. When taught young, reading can be one of the biggest forms of coping a human can develop. Using that taught method of coping can help them to navigate any mental health issues that may arise throughout life, since we all know.
“I’ve loved books since childhood and wanted to transmit this enthusiasm to my children”
I'm a mom of two young children who trained as an engineer and worked in investment banking and at Disney. A French of Caribbean origin (Martinique to be precise!), I grew up in Paris. Los Angeles is now the place I call home!
