Click Here to Learn about the Importance of Reading Daily!
Reading Supports Language Development
The one form of stimulation that has been proven to make a difference is language: infants and children who are conversed with, read to, and otherwise engaged in lots of verbal interaction show somewhat more advanced linguistic skills than children who are not as verbally engaged by their parents and caregivers. Because language is fundamental to most of the rest of cognitive development, these simple actions —talking and reading to your young child—are two of the best ways to make the most of his or her critical brain-building years.
Reading Aloud Builds Early Literacy and Improves Listening Skills
Reading aloud with your children before they start kindergarten is one of the best ways to help them develop phonemic awareness, the understanding that words are made up of distinct sounds. As well, listening to you as your read increases their vocabulary, comprehension, concentration, memory and curiosity. Of all the activities considered possibly helpful for the acquisition of literacy, only one—listening to stories—was significantly associated with later test scores.
Reading With a Child Improves Academic Performance
So much of your child’s education relies on his or her ability to read and read well. Children with strong reading skills generally thrive in all academics. The amount of experience that five-year-old children had with books was directly related to their reading comprehension at seven and eleven years old.
The real link to improved academics seems to lie in the verbal interaction that occurs between adult and child during reading.
Make sure you explain and clarify as you look at, point to and label objects in the book. Ask your child questions and let him or her make predictions about what will happen next in the story. Through answering children’s questions and giving them focused attention, they learn new vocabulary, clarify misunderstandings, and expand surface-level understandings.
Reading Increases a Child’s Lifetime Earnings
For every year you read with your child, average lifetime earnings increase by $50,000. By the time your child starts kindergarten, you make a $250,000 gift to your child by reading aloud just 20 minutes a day!