The importance of reading to your child

How to start reading to your child

First key to reading to your children is to start young and stay with it. The younger they are, the easier the book should be. Start with picture books especially around 6-12 months of age. And gradually add more books to your collection with more vocabulary in them. And don’t forget to point to the words as you say them. And be open to discussing the pictures and the story with your child.

If they are not having it, try and create a quiet and comfortable space. If it’s light outside, shut the curtains, put the lamp on and cuddle up on the couch or on a comfortable armchair. The darker, the more relaxing, just be sure you both can actually read and see the book 😂 if your child is not going along with the set up and wants to walk around and play with the book, let them and continue to read to them. They are eventually bound to understand and sit down and enjoy the magic of storytelling. We sometimes give our child an easy snack to enjoy while we read to them, like our puree that they can hold easily on their own.

Try to be consistent. Whether it’s every night, make a routine of it and even make a routine of setting up your space to become a reading space. The more you are excited for it, your children will also mirror that and enjoy the experience too.

Why read to your child

In the earlier stages of development you read to your child, the more benefits it will have.

Just like the DHA in our baby food, reading also helps with the development of your child’s cognitive skills. Reading to them helps with their thinking and understanding of the world around them with what they see, hear and read. Reading to your children and developing their cognitive skills is facet in explaining success later on in their life, such as school and social skills.

Children develop stronger language skills when being read too. Depending on how early you start reading to your child, it will help them to learn sounds, words and language and to develop early literacy skills. It is a comforting thought to know that this bonding time between you and your child can also be a very valuable experience for them and their education. You can start by guiding your child to what the pictures depict, say the names of the various objects and in doing so it helps your child associate words/sounds with real-world objects. This development in communication skills, social skills, and literacy skills, means that your child will enter school with larger vocabularies and with more advanced comprehension skills.

The one benefit from reading to your child early on, which all parents can appreciate is their child learning discipline and having an increase in concentration. When reading to children regularly you may see a change in behaviour, to become more still and calm during reading time, especially if you are reading to them with enthusiasm, not as if it’s a chore. This bonding time can be quite valuable time between your child and yourself, that will help them to relax, to help them learn discipline.

When reading to your children from a young age, it will also help with expanding their imagination. Just like the world of FUNCH is already quite a creative one, and it continues to expand with our love for reading. Reading as an imaginative activity can change one's perspective on the world around them. It can open worlds that they never thought possible. Which is a valuable thing in itself, so the more it can be encouraged the better!

What we hope happens during this month of celebrating reading, and providing our FUNCH family with books is that it will cultivate your child with a lifelong love of reading. By reading to them from a young age, parents have instilled a love of books and print with pleasure, then a guarantee to lifelong learning is sure to follow.

Book Month