Discover the Importance of Reading to Children

While most of us are perfectly aware of the reasons why reading is important for us adults, it’s also crucial to pass down our love for books and reading to the younger generation. The importance of reading to children is crucial and it has been extensively discussed in the past years. With a serious impact on child development in more than one aspect, reading is seemingly one of the things that separate kids that become successful people from those who end up slightly worse. 

Why is reading important for children? Whether we’re talking about children who are old enough to read by themselves or toddlers we should be reading to, here at Basmo we believe that any sort of contact with books and reading should be exploited from as early on as possible. And we will explain the reasons we stand behind that statement below. 

Why is reading important for children?

Exploring the reasons why all children should read as much as possible can shed some light on the importance of reading in general and all its benefits. 

What’s important to take note of is the fact that instilling a love for reading in kids will only lead to a better future. Countries where reading is a common habit tend to have stronger economies and higher living standards than those where reading is less common, and that cannot be a coincidence. If we want to make our societies better and more successful in the future, pushing our children towards reading is essential. And not only for our societies’ sake, but for their own sake as individuals too. 

Here is how reading can improve our children’s lives from a very young age. 

Cognitive development

Unlike cubs from other species, human children need a lot of support in their early years of life. They have a lot to learn about the world around them and while most of the essential knowledge comes directly through experience and from the parents, reading can be a very important source of information for young children. 

Whether we’re referring to children who are old enough to read books or about younger kids who need to be read to, the importance of reading in their lives is the same. Books provide endless knowledge, which can help our young ones make more sense of the world around them. 

Cognitive development in the early years of life has been linked to more success later in the adult years, which is why providing our children with all the right tools for good mental development is crucial.

Enhanced vocabulary

We all know how important having a rich vocabulary is. Not only does it allow us to be more fluent when speaking and find the right words to express our ideas quicker and more efficiently, but it also improves our ability to better understand new concepts and ideas.

As you can imagine, if having a rich vocabulary is extremely important for an adult, for a child this is absolutely essential. The more words children learn, the easier it becomes for them to express themselves and to learn more and more. Their vocabulary is a domino piece that can have a lot of negative effects if it falls, dragging a lot of other pieces with it. 

This incredibly important building block for our education that is our vocabulary can be fundamentally improved through reading, whether the child is doing the reading himself or is being read to. 

Better empathy and understanding of emotions

Emotional development is as important in a young child’s early years as cognitive development. Even though an argument can be made that the main way for a child to understand emotions is through his interactions with his parents, family, and friends, the truth is that reading can give a young kid a whole new understanding of different emotions.

Reading is known to help develop better empathy both in children and adults, simply through the fact that it exposes the reader to different situations, emotions the characters are going through, surprising ways of looking at life or particular situations, and life stories the child or adult would not have the opportunity to learn about in other ways other than reading. 

The importance of empathy and emotional intelligence is well known and undoubtedly relevant for children. 

Develops concentration

Children are well-known for having a very short attention span. Children are all different, of course. But one thing they do have in common is that reading can massively improve their ability to concentrate for longer. Needless to say, that is a very important ability to have as a child. The longer their attention span, the more information they can absorb in one sitting, which later leads to much better comprehension and learning abilities. 

Improves creativity

Reading gives our imagination an important boost, regardless of our age. For a young child’s developing mind, a creativity or imagination boost is extremely beneficial. Reading improves children’s ability to let their minds wander off and create mental images of the things they read or even create their own stories. 

Reading improves interconnectivity in the brain, develops the brain more quickly, and helps children allow themselves to dream with their eyes open while they read the amazing adventures in their books. 

Keeps them away from phones or other screens

Even though it goes without saying, every minute your child spends away from screens of any kind is a victory. In today’s environment where everything seems to revolve around smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, and other devices that emit blue light, getting your child to love reading is going to be a huge achievement. 

The negative effects of blue light exposure, especially in children, are worrying, to say the least. From headaches, visual fatigue, and restlessness, to sleep disorders, blue light can cause a lot of harm if children are allowed to overindulge in activities where they are exposed to it for longer periods of time. 

Every page they read represents a couple of minutes they avoided blue light, so it’s a battle won. 

Reading makes children better learners, improves general knowledge and comprehension

Since mental development is an ongoing process for a child and reading gives it a massive boost, a reading kid is going to benefit from a series of associated effects. 

They will find learning to be easier, will absorb information faster than non-readers, their attention span is going to be longer, and they will have a better level of comprehension associated both with the richer vocabulary and with their higher ability to understand new concepts.

Why is it important to read to children?

As I previously mentioned, reading to children or pushing them to read by themselves are both equally important, as the benefits of reading to children are somewhat similar to the ones they will enjoy when reading alone. Depending on your child’s age and education level, feel free to make the relevant choice in regards to who is doing the reading.

In case you are the proud parent of a toddler who can’t read just yet, here’s why reading to them is going to be very important.

To teach them healthy reading habits

It may surprise you to a certain extent, but the team here at Basmo, after a long and heated debate, came to the conclusion that the most important reason why you should make an effort and make a habit to read to your child every single day is that this is going to become second nature for the kid. 

Instilling a love for reading and teaching your child to have healthy reading habits is essential for the way they will act later in life. Knowing that bedtime only starts with a reading session can lead to a life-lasting habit of always reading before bed, and that is something your child will massively benefit from later in life. 

To make sure you take full advantage of the benefits of reading aloud to children, we strongly recommend you start using Basmo, the best reading tracking app out there. In order to ensure that you never miss a reading session and that you are successful in instilling healthy reading habits in your child, Basmo has a couple of solutions.

For bonding

Reading to your child is a nice experience for both of you. It can be a bonding moment in your day, a time when you and your child both explore the adventures of a hero from your kid’s book. You share a couple of peaceful moments together, you laugh or get sad together, while your child benefits tremendously from the fact that he or she is being read to.

And this bonding habit of reading together doesn’t need to end when your child becomes capable of reading alone. You can still spend 30 minutes together everyday reading, even though you are reading different things. It will still be a bonding experience you can enjoy together.

What are the effects of reading on child development?

As I already mentioned above, reading gives your child’s mental development a massive boost. It speeds up the development of the brain, enhances emotional intelligence, and gives your child a head start in life.

While mental development does happen without reading as well, reading gives it a massive boost and allows children to develop into more intelligent adults. 

Independent from the benefits of the actual process of reading, what your child is reading is also very important. The way you choose the books they will read can have a huge impact on how much they love reading and what they get from the experience. There are many books with high educational potential, dedicated to teaching your child about certain experiences or skills. 

Nowadays you can probably find books about any topic you can think of and the way you feed your child the information you think is important for him to possess has changed a lot during the past years. Anything can be taught through reading, even the things you would be most uncomfortable discussing to a child, presented in a very friendly, psychologically adapted for their specific age. As a parent, it’s well known that you sometimes don’t have all the right answers to your child’s questions and you should take full advantage of the fact that you can simply find a book that answers those questions in a way your child is going to enjoy and more importantly, understand.

Final thoughts

Why is reading important for kids? The importance of reading from a young age and discovering the love for books in early childhood cannot be underestimated. Children benefit tremendously from reading, regardless of whether they are doing the reading themselves or are being read to. Use Basmo to always keep track of what your child is reading, what he should be reading, and how much he is doing it every day.

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