Reading books with children during their early years has many positive effects on their development. There are so many benefits of reading books to kids!
Studies show that reading aloud to children for at least 20 minutes a day significantly increases their vocabulary range by the time they are five years old. With a strong lexicon, children are better prepared for personal, academic, and social success.
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Want to know more? Let’s take a closer look at four benefits of reading books to kids:
1. Language Acquisition 🗣️
The process of literacy is a long journey, but it starts from the day a child is born!
Children learn how to speak from listening to their parents and those around them. The more a child is read to by a family member, the more experiences they have with pronunciation, fluency, and intonation.
Not only does listening to books help develop a child’s acquisition of language, but it also strengthens their listening skills!
2. Vocabulary Development 🔤
The more children have books read aloud to them, the more their vocabulary range grows! Interacting with stories helps children decode familiar letters, words, patterns, and phonics.
With a high range of vocabulary, children are more likely to be strong readers when they enter school. Studies show that children whose parents read them five books a day enter kindergarten with 1.4 million more words than peers who had not been read to.
3. Empathy & Emotional Intelligence ❤️
Books also teach kids important lessons about friendship, culture, and difficult situations!
Reading multicultural stories helps children understand the experiences of others and develops their capacity for feeling empathy. Themes in children’s books also help them navigate situations they will encounter like sharing, arguments with friends, feeling left out, and beyond.
A love of reading helps kids develop coping skills and understand the world and the many different people within it!
4. Critical Thinking & Analytical Skills 🧠
Not only does reading books inspire creativity in kids, but it also encourages curiosity! When children are engaged in the plot of a story, they begin to problem solve an outcome or solution.
You can help children develop these skills by asking questions while you read. Help you little one make predictions about the story and problem solve the conflicts that characters are dealing with.
Try asking:
- “What do you think will happen next?”
- “Why can’t the baby bird find its mother?”
- “How would you feel in this situation?”
This helps children analyze the story and make real-world connections.
Read with Lingokids 💙
There are many different ways to read books with your little one.
Physical books are a great way for children to interact with letters and images.
Audiobooks and podcasts help children develop their imagination, pronunciation, and listening skills. It’s also really fun to hear the different characters’ voices! Plus, you can listen to them while you are in the car or tidying up the house.
- Podcast for Kids 🎙️ –Tune in to our podcasts for kids and listen to exciting stories. You can find us on any podcast platform!
- Our podcast “Stories for Kids” will help boost imaginative thinking, listening skills and language development.
- A more music oriented podcast “Music to Our Ears” will spark your child’s curiosity and have them singing all day long.
Caregivers, what benefits do you notice when reading books with your kiddos?
Let us know by tagging us on our social media channel! Want to discover more about what Lingokids has to offer? Check out our YouTube Channels and download the Lingokids App!
