Benefits of Reading Aloud
As a speech-language pathologist and preschool teacher, one of the main questions parents ask me is “What should we work on at home?” Parents want the best for their children. They want to teach them letters and math. Of course, these are important skills. However, my main recommendation for parents is to play and read books. It’s that easy! There are so many benefits to reading aloud with your children. Let’s talk about some of those benefits…
Increases Vocabulary
To learn new words, kids need multiple, meaningful exposures to those words. Books are a great way to provide these opportunities.
Increases Attention Span
Over time, you will likely notice that your child is able to attend to longer books and for longer periods of time. My (almost) two-year-old has always loved books. I’ve noticed recently that she is able to attend to one story for much longer time periods, which means we are able to read different, longer books together.
Enhances Social-Emotional Development
As you probably know, children can have very big feelings. It can be hard for them to process and label those feelings. When children see these situations unfold in stories, it can become easier for them to navigate those tricky situations.
Enhances Early Literacy Skills
Have you noticed that many of your child’s books include rhyming words, different text styles and alliteration? While these things make books fun to read, they also serve a purpose! Rhyming and alliteration are important phonological awareness skills. Letter recognition, page turning, different styles of text and more are valuable print awareness skills. It can be much more fun for children to learn these things through their favorite books than with flash cards!
Motivates Child to Read
I don’t know about you, but my child is approximately 500% more likely to play with a toy if I am next to it or playing with it first! The same goes for books. Children want to connect and do what they see adults in their life doing. Reading books together with your child is a great way to develop an early love of reading.
Cultivates Connection
Reading books aloud together is a great way for family members and friends to connect. This is so important as the use of technology increases and people are generally less connected from each other. Children (and adults) may also be craving more connection these days as the COVID pandemic continues and we are more isolated than usual.
Join My Virtual Story Time!
If your children are craving more connection, join my FREE Virtual Story Time! It will be a short (15-20 min), engaging weekly event geared towards children ages 2-6, but open to everyone! Click the link below to sign up!