Benefits of reading to children.

Recently I’ve been thinking about my childhood in Romania. I don’t remember my parents ever reading to me, but that’s mostly because I basically grew up with my grandparents. My grandparents also never really read to me, but I vividly remember my grandma telling me stories pretty much every night before bed. My personal favorite was the Little Red Riding Hood. I would ask her to tell me that story nearly every night, and most of the time she would. Sometimes, she would tell me another story, and although I would enjoy it, when she finished, I would want to hear the Little Red Riding Hood again. I’m not sure what I liked so much about the Little Red Riding Hood, but I know that it influenced my thoughts greatly. I remember playing with my wooden dolls and plastic farm animals, and I would play out the story of the Little Red Riding Hood – my big wooden boy doll would be Little Red Riding Hood and the tiny plastic farm animals would eat the big doll. Somehow it all worked out in my little 5 year old mind. Remembering her tell me these stories every night paints a smile on my face. This got me thinking about the benefits of reading to children. When I actually thought about it, I realized that the benefits are great, and I think that overall, reading to children allows them to develop a more positive and happy lifestyle in the future.

I think the most important benefit that reading to a child offers is the fact that their language and speech develops easier and faster than if they weren’t read to. Recently, Josh at World’s Strongest Librarian talked about how his parents basically started reading to him since day one. His spelling and vocabulary was therefore very advanced. Having an advanced or at least normal vocabulary does wonders for a child – it gives the child confidence. Confidence in their intellectual abilities allows them to further pursue intellectual stimulation. I think everyone can remember back to when they were in grades 1-6. Remember that one kid who would always cause trouble, their grades would be low and their behaviour rather unpredictable? I think reading to children at night (or even just telling stories) helps eliminate the child going down that road. Children act out when they feel like they have to in order for someone to pay attention to them – even if this attention is then negative (being sent to the office, being punished/yelled at etc).

Why do I believe that a simple thing such as reading to a child for 5 minutes every night can eliminate such behaviour? Well lets look at the many reasons. First and foremost, it allows for some one on one time – child and parent(s). This one on one time is extremely important to children, it allows them to bond to their parents, which in turn gives them a sense of respect and admiration for their parents. It also helps children develop listening skills, which are important both for their success in school and later life. Not only that, but it molds children into becoming readers. My grandparents and parents did not read to me, but my grandma always told me stories and both my parents and grandparents provided me with whatever books they could. Of course, the circumstances in Romania were quite different from typical western countries – books were not so readily available, and the ones that were available were usually either very expensive or in quite bad conditions. Either way, the few books I did have, I treasured and I loved to read them. Furthermore, seeing my grandma read her romance novels encouraged me to read as well. Therefore, if parents pick up a book and read to their children, I think it would have the same effect.

Yet, I think the most beneficial reward that story telling and book reading instilled on me as a child was that it developed my imagination to a great extent. The stories my grandma would tell me at night would become the adventures of my dolls and farm animals but always with a twist of some sort. I would combine stories, add to them, take parts I didn’t like out and basically make my own perfect world. My imagination is what later on helped me deal with difficult circumstances. My imagination is also what made me enjoy writing and creating things.

Todays society is filled with technology, different sorts of pressures on children that weren’t quite as influential years ago, and a world in which the hours of the day just don’t seem to be as long as they used to. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not again technology and the modern world, in fact, I think there are many positives about our world today. But I do think that parents are spending less time with children. And I do think that this robs children of some very important lessons. With all the computer games, internet and the hundreds of TV channels, I think it’s important for children to rewind and let their imagination soar while reading a traditional, old fashioned book. And no, a Kindle just won’t do.

3 Responses to “Benefits of reading to children.”

1. Alana says:

   December 11, 2009 at 18:39

   I totally agree! I fell in love with reading because my parents encouraged it – I was never spoiled, but when it came to books, they were always willing to take me to the library or buy me books (not sure if you had this in school growing up, but we used to get the Scholastic book flyers that students were allowed to order from, I was always the kid who ordered six or seven books.) Because I love books, and my sister loves books, my niece has been read to from day one. What’s really interesting though, is the reaction my nephew has to reading. As my niece is two and a half now, she demands a lot of attention – my nephew is nearly 5 months old, and he’s a very happy baby, so he’s often just hanging out, being cool, taking everything in. He is very loved, but he isn’t showered with constant attention the way my niece was, being the second child and all (I’m a second child, so I know how it goes, haha). A few weeks ago I was babysitting and when it came time to read bedtime stories to my niece, I took my nephew in and put him in his little recliner chair, facing us – just to keep an eye on him while reading to my niece. His reaction to the reading was amazing! He was laughing and cooing and so excited, maybe he liked my attempts at animal noises, hehe. It made me realize that even at his young age, only 5 months, reading is very important. It made him so happy to have me look directly at him and tell him a story, to animate my voice, to smile broadly. He may not understand the story, but he definitely understands the love and attention. It’s never too early to start reading to kids!
   Alana´s last blog ..Linkage

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2. Matthew Michael says:

   December 14, 2009 at 16:59

   Wonderful Post =),

   When I started to read your post it was creepy lol, I grew also grew up with my grandparents in my olden country and my grandma would always reads me little red riding hood :S, I remember as a joke a few years ago she remembered how much I loved to hear the story when I was little so she got me one of the 19th century original copies and can you believe…the story back then was totally different lol, Little Red Riding Hoods Red Hood was a representation of the female virginity hymen and the wolf was a representation of men wanting to take away her innocence hahaha :S, never saw red riding hood the same way after that. =|

   I totally agree about technology changing us, it’s a funny paradox, we now have so much information available to us compared to before…but we know a lot less, we have stuff like twitter to learn more about our friends yet we spend less time with them…technology is killing manual creativity in my opinion, before we had to use our imagination to build toys or play outside, now everything is projected to us through screens :(, I remember I loved Alice In Wonderland so I’d walked around the Spanish country village I lived in and took photos of random things I liked…then I’d try to connect those random things in the photos through a story and came up with fairly interesting things (trying to connect the story line from a photo of a butterfly with a photo of a white cloud), it was wicked fun!…of course I’ve always thought I’m an old soul trapped in a young mans body hahaha so my opinion is biased :p

   Anyways enough of my blabbering, Cool Blog =)
   Matthew Michael´s last blog ..Reflected Puddles Of Thought Our Fragile Hearts Must Be

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   • K says:

     December 24, 2009 at 14:02

     Hi Matthew, thanks for stopping by, and sorry for the late reply. Traveling to visit family that doesn’t have internet at home and the like doesn’t allow for much time to find internet cafes. I can totally see how Little Red Riding Hoods Red Hood was a representation of the female virginity and the wolf a representation of men wanting to take away her innocence. If you think about it, a lot of these old stories have sexual connotations behind it’s seemingly innocent visuals, or in the case of our grandmothers, verbal stories.

     I like your story about walking around the Spanish country village. I too loved Alice in Wonderland, but never tried to connect the story line from a photo of a butterfly with a photo of a white cloud – why didn’t I think of that!?

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