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Bedtime Stories - the Benefits of Early Reading With your Kids
Author: Ellie Dixon  | Posted: 02-10-2007 | Comments: 0 | Views: 94 | Rating: (86)  (?) 
 For most parents, snuggling up with their pre-school kids for a bedtime story is an eagerly-awaited and enjoyable event. It’s a rare chance for parents and children to relax together while developing an early appreciation of language and literacy through the magical world of books. But parents don’t have to wait until the toddler years before they make books a daily part of family life.
Many expectant moms read to their bumps because they know that their babies can hear – and recognise – their voice while they’re still in the womb. This is believed to help the bonding process after birth. And although very young babies won’t understand what you’re saying, they will still enjoy the sound of your voice and looking at the brightly-coloured pictures in the book.
Mike and I started reading bedtime stories to our daughter, Emma, when she was only a few weeks old. We hoped that establishing this regular routine very early on would make bedtimes enjoyable, and help her to sleep through the night. It did take a while for the sleeping through the night to happen, but the stories we chose remained firm favourites with Emma for many months.
According to research, reading with your child in this way will help him or her become familiar with the idea of the written word, and associate it with pleasure, laying a strong foundation for early literacy.
Reading books with your child is, after all, one of the nicest activities you can share. It develops so many skills, from building attention, encouraging language acquisition and vocabulary development, to developing emotional intelligence about character motivation and experience.
This might sound very technical and complicated – but it all happens quite naturally when you read with your child. Research has shown that the home environment can really make a difference to a child’s development. In fact more important than the mom’s educational attainments is how she interacts with her child. If the mother reads to her child, plays rhyming games, sings songs, talks about letters and sounds, and takes her child to the library, these activities at home are more important and can make up for a low education level.
Research has also shown that early development of social, language and cognitive skills does provides an essential foundation for the child to form successful relationships with the rest of world as they grow older: a child with strong abilities in these areas will be more likely to acquire the skills and emotional stability that are essential for a productive, responsible and happy adult life.
It’s never too late – start reading with your young kids today!!
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