Raise a Reader | The Amazing Benefits of Reading for Preschool Children

In this digital age one often forgets to appreciate the good things that life has to offer. And having one of your grandparent or parent reading to you with a crinkly-eyed smile would clearly be one of the most treaured cookies in your memory jar. Life and its daily pressures always keep getting the better of you, but then again it is in your hands to keep alive the magic of storytelling. It is advisable to read to your child right from he/she is an infant. Apart from enabling you to spend quality time with your children, the benefits of reading to your child are many.

1.Thought Propeller

Getting and holding on to a preschooler’s attention is no easy task. Reading to your child, is one of the few ways to get them hooked on. Once that’s done comes in the power of the narrative, the manner in which you emote to the child in the course of reading plays a very crucial role. If your voice reflects excitement, fear or happiness that reflects the nature of events in the story, your little one will soon begin to comprehend feelings and emotions. If you take the extra effort and enunciate the words while reading to your child, it retains in their memory and hence goes on to enhance their vocabulary. A story, result in your little one using his/her brain as a canvas and keeps painting images in his mind. It is an extremely powerful thought propeller, so read on.

2. Possibility to transform him/her into a booklover

The more engaging the storytelling session the better it is. As a child observes the tirade of emotions and expressions playing on your face it intrigues them. This factor could make them take on to reading with more readiness. In the preschool stage they have to transition to reading themselves, reading to them help makes that switch easier.

3. Refining of motor skills

Reading involves fair share of physical activity to. Firstly, you’d have to keep the book propped open at the right angle and then hold on to it. On completing a page you have to turn it over, encourage your child to do each of these things. Being able to manoeuvre the workings of a book confidently also encourages them to read.

4. It contributes to living a life of discipline

A preschooler is a bundle of energy, disciplining them to stay put is a task most parents consider impossible. While you engage your little one in a story, eventually you have his/her undivided attention and their concentration is affixed on the happenings in the story. As you go on with the reading exercise each day, living by discipline becomes a way of life.

5. Leads to Academic achievements

Every parent dreams one dream, my child will get high grades all through his academic journey. You can be instrumental in helping him achieve that by reading to him/her. Reading to him every day you will see immediate effects, he/she will soon begin recognizing alphabets, shapes, colors and numbers. Studies have gone on to say, if you read to child at the preschool level, they go on to scoring higher in their succeeding levels.

Reading alone to the child isn’t enough, there’s a manner in which you should perform the daily ritual. For starters, you can begin the exercise by talking a little about the book before actually starting to read it. You could modulate the tone of your voice for different characters. Have their fingers move along the lines of the story, guided by you. Pause the story in the middle and ask him/her questions in the middle like “What do you think will happen next?” Make saying particular phrases a thing between the both of you. Your little one will not be so little for very long, do all that you can and inculcate in him/her the love for reading.