DEAR DR.PAUL: I have 2 children one is 3 years old and the other is 4. My younger one loves for me to read to him. What are the benefits of reading to children?
PEDIATRICIAN DR.PAUL Answers: This is a very good question. Of course there are many benefits to reading to our kids and I will take this opportunity to list and describe them:
- Language and speech development: Reading to a child makes it easier for him/her to develop speech. As a matter of fact, I recommend that parents read to children with is speech delays as part of the treatment.
- Vocabulary and pronunciation: By looking at a picture in a book or a word and then hearing how it is pronounced out loud, children can learn new words along with their pronunciation.
- Preparing for school: Children are ready to go to school when they can attend or listen to what someone else is saying, learn and participate in structured situations such as story reading and focus in and listen to one central person in the classroom. Reading to a child is great way to prepare a pre-schooler for the school environment. On a higher level, children will get used to hearing stories and following sentences. This will be very helpful when they start to learn about grammar and sentence structure.
- Bonding time: Reading to a child is also an ideal opportunity for a parent to spend some time with their child. Reading time can be perceived as “their time!” I suggest that parents get down and spend time with their children at their level. Reading an interesting children’s story to them accomplishes this.
- Part of a routine: Reading to children before bed time becomes a nice pre-bed time ritual or routine. Children tend to have an easier time going to sleep if there is a set routine. For example: brushing the teeth, have a story read to them and then fall sleep.
- Life-long benefits: As a children gets older, they will read on their own, building on the interest and experience of being read to for years. This sets off a life-long interest/aptitude in reading which comes in handy in any aspect of our lives especially during the formative school years right through college and beyond.
One of the potential modern day challenges parents are faced with relates to the “high-tech” revolution with the advent of computers, internet and video/computer games. Many will argue that these may cut into a child’s reading time and interfere with parents reading to them. I think that kids need to become technology savvy, but parents can still accompany them while they work/read and learn on the computer or internet. However, parents should also make sure that they reserve time regularly to read a book to their kids, an old fashioned, yet still very beneficial thing to do!
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