The Importance of Reading

I was often told by my parents and teachers when I was a teenager that I should read more. I was a stubborn teenager and did not listen to their advice. However, having become a teacher and a parent myself, I now realise just how important that advice was. I really should have listened to them more!

As a result, reading now forms a huge part of our family’s life. We visit the library weekly, read stories and bring them to life on a daily basis! We want our children to fall in love with the magic of stories and then become lifelong readers. We want them to choose to spend their time reading about magical characters and places that they would not experience on an average day. So why do we as parents and teachers place such a strong emphasis on reading?

Here are our top 8 reasons why we think reading with your babies, toddlers and children is so important:

 1. Albert Einstein summed it up “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” Studies have shown that reading makes a huge difference to a child’s educational performance. As a teacher I argued continually that reading was one of the most important life skills we can teach our young people. When a child can read, it opens a door for them; from being able to read food labels in shops, to reading a recipe to make dinner or reading the internet to develop their knowledge in new subjects. Reading is a skill that our children need to have in order to be able to live independently one day.

2. Adults reading to babies, toddlers and children, enables our children to develop their language and listening skills and increases their vocabulary. Reading to your child is one of the best ways to develop your child’s speech and language skills. All children learn a number of things from watching and listening to the adults in their lives reading to them. They learn about the different sounds we make when reading and the way we form sounds using our mouth, tongue and lips. Read more about this here. They watch us focus and listen to a story which encourages and promotes their ability to attend for longer periods of time which will eventually help them to build conversations and then focus on lessons when they start school. Children’s stories are rich in interesting vocabulary and they provide valuable opportunities to discover new and interesting words.

3. Reading with a child is an opportunity to spend a really special time together. Reading can enable you and your child to reconnect after a busy day and creates a shared experience. It has the ability to reduce stress and anxiety and provides moments of mindfulness at the end of a long day. The Reading Agency recently published an article from research they had carried out which showed that reading for pleasure can ‘reduce the symptoms of depression and improve well-being throughout life.’

4. Children’s stories can stimulate our little one’s imaginations through their use of rich and descriptive language and colourful pictures. They enable our children to build a mental picture of the story; what the characters look like, how they talk, what the scenery is like.

 5. Linked to the point above, stories transport our children to new worlds and new experiences. Dr Seuss summed this up ‘The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you will go.’ Through stories children are exposed to new ideas and beliefs. It can open their minds to new realities. We can’t take our children into space or to Africa to meet lions but with stories we listen to the rich language, look at the beautiful pictures and with our imaginations we can travel to places we can’t go to on an average Tuesday. 

 6. Stories can promote thinking skills and encourages a growth mindset. Thinking skills help us to make sense of experiences, solve problems, make decisions, ask questions, make plans and organise information. Having a growth mindset is the motivation to learn, explore and to discover new things. A growth mindset helps to build resilience and the ability to try again when things go wrong. Reading can help a child predict what may happen as the story develops and challenges to the brain to think of new and different possibilities. In stories anything is possible!  

 7. As a teacher I used stories to help my pupils develop empathy as they were exposed to how the characters were feeling. This in turn helped them to learn about their own emotions. Stories can also help children process difficult situations they are experiencing themselves. Reading about characters that are going through similar situations can help them understand that they aren’t alone with those feelings and can provide them with guidance on how others have worked through it.

 8.  Reading can develop and support our children’s writing skills. This was the main reason why my parents and teachers wanted to me to read as a teenager. Reading exposes us to other styles of writing, text structures, language, vocabulary and to writing of a better quality than our own. This all then improves our own as well as our children’s writing.  

Now that we understand the importance of reading, what can we as parents / educators do to help our children become readers? Before we teach our children the letter sounds and how to segment and blend words (more information on this can be found here), we first need them to fall in love with the magic of stories. Parents and carers have a huge role to play in this.

here are our top 5 ways to develop a love of reading in your children:

1. We feel it is important to start reading to our little ones from a very young age and to read to your child as often as possible. Even the youngest babies will find comfort in hearing your voice as you read a story. And please don’t stop reading to your children once they can read themselves.

2. Use their interests when choosing books and choose books to read together. If your little one loves trains or dinosaurs or fairies then read stories that feature them. Going to the library is a great activity to get out of the house and a great opportunity to explore new and different stories.

3. Be enthusiastic about reading as this will rub off on your child. If you treasure books and are excited about reading them, then your children will want to read more. I appreciate this isn’t always possible but children copy the adults around them, so if you can, sit down and read a book - your children will copy you.

4. Make books visible and accessible. Your child should be able to choose a book whenever they want. We have a basket of books which sits next to the toys so our little ones can help themselves throughout the day. If you are worried about your child ripping the books, buy material or thick board books. And to be honest, cellotape can always fix a ripped page.

5. Bring stories to life by using funny voices, changing your tone to suit the story and reading in unusual places to suit the setting in the story. If you are reading a story about a gnome that lives in a cave, build a cave in the living room and read the story in there. Stories can also be great inspirations for small world activities. Click here to see some of our examples.

There are many more ways to encourage your children to become avid readers and we love to hear your ideas. So please share your ideas in the comments section below.

There are so many books out there for babies, toddlers and children. It can be a little overwhelming when trying to find the perfect story so we have created a list of our children’s favourite stories. Click on the links below:

Our Favourite Books for Babies , Our Favourite Books for Toddlers , Our Favourite Books for Children , Our Favourite Christmas Stories