Importance of Books for Children
Reading out loud to your baby from the first day you bring her home is a double bonus. It not only helps cement the parent/child relationship but also gives her the first exciting peek at the world of adventure that awaits. It's never too early to start building a library for your child and encouraging her to add to it as she grows.
Other People Are Reading
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Emotional Security
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Hearing a parent's soothing voice helps to calm a child of any age and assures him he has his mom or dad's undivided attention.
Sparking Curiosity
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Reading a book - be it a fairy tale, a myth, or a biography - makes a child wonder what's going to happen next, an exercise in inquisitiveness that can be applied to family life, school, friendships, and the state of the world. Books also impart valuable guidance regarding the consequences of good vs. bad decisions.
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Vocabulary Building
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The more a child reads, the more words he discovers. This helps him learn how to spell and sound out new words as well as learn how to use them in sentences.
Word/Picture Associations
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A picture book teaches a child the connection between an illustration on a page and the printed words that accompany it. This exercise works in concert with a child pointing to an object and wanting to know what it is.
Unleashing the Imagination
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A book invites a reader of any age to vicariously experience what it would be like to live in a different time, a different place, and experience challenges that might never occur in real life. This, in turn, can fuel the imagination to come up with brand new stories for others to read and enjoy.
Focus
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Listening to a story or reading a book on one's own requires a certain level of concentration. Being able to filter out distractions, analyze content, and be able to recall pertinent details has application to every aspect of a child's future growth and development.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit Images by Christina Hamlett
