At school age, learning to read becomes a huge focus. The importance of reading stories aloud to your child should not be understated. Reading aloud is known as the single most important activity leading to language development in young children and sets your child on the path to learning to read on their own.
Reading aloud to children is a great way of engaging with preschoolers and can help them to feel connected to their parents and teachers. When reading, make sure that you make eye contact or physical contact like having your child sit on your lap while you read. Reading and listening to a story being read helps children to relax, which can help them to cope better in stressful times.
When parents and teachers connect with children during reading sessions, it can help to create a positive association with books. This stands children in good stead for literacy skills later on. If children know that books are enjoyable they are more likely to read on their own. There is evidence that children who fall seriously behind in early reading skills have fewer opportunities to practice reading and that lost practice opportunities make it extremely difficult for children to acquire average levels of reading fluency. This means that gaining these critical early reading skills can make a big difference to your child’s success later on.
Reading gives children a chance to practice their listening skills and maintain their attention for the duration of the story. Once they are in school and need to pay attention to a teacher, reading may help them concentrate in class.
Finally, reading can help to improve children’s’ vocabulary by exploring new words and stories with content that they have not heard before. Stories that are beyond the level that a child can read on their own can enlarge their world and take their imagination to places they have never been before. This expands their knowledge of the world and helps them to acquire fluent reading skills.
Teachers at Falcon British Nursery read to your children regularly to help them develop these early language and literacy skills and build a solid and positive foundation for reading development.