Why is it important to read to your Children?

Question

I am working on a project for my local FCCLA chapter and would like to know if reading has helped you or your children with school or work.

Answer 1

The obvious answer is that it encourages them to read and enhances their vocabulary and language skills

… but even before that, it stimulates the development of the speech and language regions within the brain develop during the critical ages from birth through five years.

It also encourages imagination for the brain to "visualize" the events within the story, which is why reading children's stories that are NOT picture books is important.

Plus, if you choose your stories carefully, you can find stories that help you teach the values that you want your child to learn.

Answer 2

#1 - Parent and child are spending quality time together which makes the child feel secure. Children who are less fearful are more open to new experiences such as school. It also gives the parent the opportunity to determine if there may be any developmnental needs that should be addressed early.

#2 - Story time prepares children for school. They are already familiar with the some basic reading concepts and may be able to read a little before starting school. This gives a feeling of success early on which helps to boost their motivation in school.

I read to my children often when they were small. My older child is a nationally recognized scholar and my younger child is an internationally recognized jazz and classical musician. Did the reading help? Well, I don't think it hurt.

Answer 3

There are lots of reasons to help children with reading...

To progress faster at school and get better grades.

To avoid falling behind other class-members and then giving up on subjects.

Bonding with the child by reading stories together. They can talk to you out loud and say how they feel during a story, which they can't do in class.

So they get to love reading for pleasure and to stimulate their imaginations.

It helps them get into a bed-time routine and go to sleep, for their benefit and yours.

One to one tuition allows them to ask lots of questions and learn new words and grammar and get instant feedback and correction instead of leaving errors uncorrected and repeated.

They can choose the reading material they enjoy (within reason) instead of being forced to read what everyone else reads.

We have now gone beyond the agriculture, manufacturing and service industry age and into the 'information age'. This isn't just an empty buzz-word.

Reading is vital for getting information on the internet and ongoing learning of new skills on the net. Many of the best paid jobs are/will be through creating 'Information Products'. These are things that don't necessarily exist in physical form like a CD or DVD. They can be things that only exist in an intangible form as files for download, such as software, videos, MP3 music files, electronic books as Adobe Acrobat files, etc. The advantage is that thousands of copies of a file can be sold via internet-download without manufacturing physical CDs or DVDs. Authoring/creating these requires literacy.

They are not just learning for utilitarian purposes like work; achievements in the arts and media will increasingly be in electronic form.

Reading is essential for written communication by email, Instant Messenger, online text-chat, etc.

Answer 4

Television doesn't encourage imagination. When something new is created, you say the person is imaginative or Creative. It's about being able to visualize. A primary skill for architects is to be able to see a 3d picture of a 2d floorplan. Reading in general has helped me quite a bit, but I wasn't read much to as a kid, so I don't know how much it will help kids for sure. I do know that me reading has developed my English and grammar to a level that I tested out of early college level English classes. I also know that reading with children is a great way for adults and children to spend hours together without having the kids misbehave too badly, since when I read to my nephews they always behave very well for at least a good hour.

Answer 5

Well, I don't have children, but I am interning at a local elementary school and my experiences there, working with children, has led me to believe that yes it does. Teachers and instructors at school do teach children to read, but they need all of the practice that they can get. For instance, one child that I have cannot read very well. She far behind the majority of the class. Her parents don't read to her or insist on her reading. The other students that have parents willing to read to them are excelling in this area as well as the other subjects taught.

Answer 6

All of these answers are good. I wanted to add something to the list of good reasons. I've worked in elementary schools for 3 years and I can always tell which kids were read to and which ones were not read to. It is one of the things that seperates the upper kids from the lower kids.

BTW-- I was read to every night as a young child, then I read by myself every night starting around 3rd grade, and I was miles ahead of the rest of the kids in my grade every year.

Answer 7

I was read to as a child and it put me miles above most children growing up. No matter how intelligent you are, if you read consistently you are smarter than %90 of people and you are a better writer and speller.
I have nephews and a niece now and the first thing I did was buy them a ton of books.

Answer 8

I've been a teacher off and on for over 30 years - and I have noticed the brighter students are also good readers. Children seem to want to read more if their parent(s) read to them.

Answer 9

Why is it important to read aloud to children.
*Stimulates thier brain to create new learning pathways and strenghten existing ones
*Prepare them for reading
*Reading aloud provides an opportuntiy to nature children
Benefits of reading aloud:
*Research consistently demonstrate that more children know about lanague and literacy before they arrive to school, the better equipped they are to succeed.

Answer 10

Reading is beneficial to all age groups. But reading to children before they can read themselves always helps. It promotes good habits, teaches them all sorts of objects, what words are, and it shows affection. That's just some of the benefits.