Reading With Your Kids: It’s Never too Late!

Parents hear it all the time – reading to your children is important. But why? When should you start? What should you read?

It seems obvious that reading with your children would help them learn to read. But the benefits of cuddling up together with a book go way beyond literacy.

Speech and Language Development

Children develop most of their language from interactions with their parents and primary caregivers. Being read to helps expand their vocabulary and letter sound recognition – even before they learn to say their first word. For babies, picture books are still valuable in early literacy and speech development. Tell your little one what you see, count items on the page, say what colours are present in the pictures. Make up a story of what is happening in the pictures.

Reading also helps young children learn about the world around them – from the books themselves and from interacting with their caregivers during reading time. Take time to ask and answer questions about the topics in the book you are reading  – whether it’s about animals in the rainforest, dinosaurs, transportation – and you will help develop their curiosity, and love for learning new things that will be helpful not only in school but for their lifetime.

Connection and Bonding

Reading a story to your little one is the perfect time to snuggle up and have one-on-one connection time with your child. The more time you take the time to bond with them, the stronger their sense of belonging grows, leading to strong sense of self. In fact, research shows that the sensory experiences of sitting with a caregiver, hearing their familiar voice, and feeling a book in their hands are all important for kids’ brain development.

Reading a few stories on a regular basis can help little ones learn predictability. There is a reason why your toddler loves to read the same book over and over. They can anticipate what is coming next, giving a sense of comfort and capability.

Bedtime Success

A bedtime routine is a major factor for successful sleep patterns for young children. Adding bedtime stories to the routine allows calming moments to get your little one ready for a restful sleep.

Social Awareness

As your kids get into the stage of “big feelings”, books can be a great tool to help them learn to identify and handle their feelings in healthy ways. Seeing characters in books experience big emotions like anger or sadness lets kids know that these feelings are normal — and gives them a chance to talk about their own difficult feelings, too.

You can help them by asking questions like “how do you think this character feels?” and “Have you ever felt as angry as the boy in this book? What would you do?”

What to Read

Reading is beneficial for kids at all ages, but what you read can depend on the age and developmental stage of each child.

For newborns, it doesn’t matter what you read – cookbooks, the newspaper, poetry – the important thing is having them hear words and sentences.

By six to twelve months, babies start to get interested in books as toys to examine and manipulate. Books with flaps or textures that they can interact with keep their attention longer. Try board books with simple pictures and words and point to the pictures and words. Describe what you see on the page.

One year olds also do well with simple pictures and word books, but this is a great time to introduce nursery rhymes as well. Rhyming words actually help us retain more vocabulary when we are young!

As your children grow, content becomes more important. Choose books with topics that interest your child, or that describe something familiar to them, like going to the park or a bedtime routine. When you come across a word that’s new to your child, pause to describe it.

Kids of any age, when they get to explore their own interests through books, will learn that reading is actually fun and rewarding. And even once they start to read on their own, that doesn’t mean you should stop reading to them. Read them chapter books – now is the time to get out your old childhood favourites to read together! Reading together through elementary school supports their developing literacy and gives you both a chance to stay connected as they grow more independent.

This article appeared in the 2023 Tum’qwe’lus edition of our Newsletter. Check out the full publication here or sign up with your email address to get the newsletter delivered right to your inbox every 3 months.