[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq_xxs7-PQs]
Reading to kids boosts development and social skills
Reading to kids, even from the newborn age, helps kids develop the scaffold of language and speech. This leads to improved school readiness with increased interested in reading, and improving quality of life. Life is good as a kid when you can express what you want (and don’t want) to your family and teachers. Being able to communicate effectively and being able to read well also boosts kids’ confidence and leads to more achievements. When parents interactively read (find out how below), their kids also have improved social skills. This may be due to exposure to empathy when the kids learn about emotions in various characters in books and hear their parents mimic emotions in their voices and facial expressions. Reading outloud more often with parents also leads to decreased hyperactivity and behavioral problems in kids (AL Mendelssohn et al, Pediatrics, 2018). These lasting effects on brain development are also seen in brain imaging. Kids who are read to have changes in the activity and blood flow in their brains when compared to those just listening to background noise (JS Hutton et al, Pediatrics, 2015). Reading from a young age seems to be the key to unlocking your child’s potential! Read on to find out what it can do for you!
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Reading to kids improves parents’ stress levels!
Okay, so maybe the above benefits of reading for kids were not shocking, but did you know that reading to kids can lower parents’ stress levels and boost confidence in parenting (Q Xie et al, Pediatrics, 2018)? In an age where Pinterest and Facebook seem to judge parents whether working or stay at home or work from home, feeling great about child rearing and parenting decisions is a welcome change! Who doesn’t want feel like a parenting rockstar every once in a while? Even when laundry and dishes are overdue, even when meal prep fiascos flare up, and even when boo boos abound – maybe ER-bound for a laceration repair, we can still take 5 minutes to read a book to our kids. During that time, the chaos pauses, the clutter temporarily disappears, as all that’s heard and seen are smiles, giggles, and silly faces and voices. For a few minutes, we have control and we have a good time with our kids, and that’s all that matters in the universe. It’s so easy, no class required, no travel required, no expensive product required (and read more here on I help parents save $MONEY$). This doesn’t even require a lot of books since kids love the same books over and over and over again. Also, please take advantage of our amazing public library system to borrow books for free! So let’s put down our phones (hello millennial parents – myself included!), read to our kids, and start feeling empowered today! Check out some tips below and watch my Betamomma Book Break Youtube channel on how to read more effectively and be more engaging when reading to kids.
How to read to babies and kids
How interactive reading helps parents
How to choose books for children
I like to multitask, and I gravitate towards products that multitask too. Choose a book that is multifunctional too. Books that are already active such as Tickle Time and Where Is Baby’s Belly Button? don’t take too much imagination to make up motions that complement reading the book. Books that encourage healthy habits such as helping others, eating veggies, and sharing can lead to some very brief teachable moments. Books that show a kid learning a desired behavior like potty training (Elmo Goes Potty, A Potty For Me as read here on YouTube) and being nice to their new sibling can be helpful for kids to visualize another character going through the same lessons. Grouping books together in themes can also help kids establish a pattern and learn about a topic more deeply as they look at it from various perspectives. When I wanted to help my 3 year old get better at recognizing alphabet letters, I picked out a couple board books at the library that went through all the letters so that we could review them in various fonts and compare the words chosen for each letter in the different books. If you are not sure where to start, browse in the children’s book section at Target, TJ Maxx, Barnes and Noble, or at the public library. It’s like looking for hidden treasure, you’ll know you found the right book when it’s glimmer catches your eye. Or, ask the librarian for some help. You got this!
Summary on interactively reading with babies and kids
- Silly voices
- Motions
- Exaggerated emotions
- Talk about the characters’ feelings
- Asking questions
- Point to the pictures
- Count objects
- Find colors
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