Read to Your Child and Have Them Follow Along
Reading to your child in their early years has long been known to increase the bond between parent and child. Spending fun, quality time with your child is one of the most important aspects of parenting and preparing your child for their school education.
Putting aside a special time of day that the child can look forward to create a sense of trust in the child. The attention and love that a child enjoys during these reading periods is something that they remember all through their development. It sends a positive signal of the parent’s caring and devotion to the child’s well-being.
This feeling of well-being also boosts a child’s interest in developing, particularly in their early years of the development phase. They begin to equate their learning with the intimacy and attention they received from their parents when they were reading to them.
But this pleasurable reading period also serves to give a head start to the child’s education as well. By propping the book up in front of them and having them follow along with the story, they begin to follow the story.
Children are like sponges; they absorb information that they then process to make sense of it all. This is why children learn to speak languages more quickly and fluently the earlier they have begun learning the language.
The same goes for reading skills, the younger you begin to interest a child in reading, the much easier it will be for them to pick up the cognitive skills necessary for them to read effectively.
Developing Language Skills
As they follow the story, they begin to see that these strange letters, words, and sentences have meaning that correlate directly to the illustrations on the pages of the book. But using reading as a means of developing language skills is often a long process, depending on how early you begin reading to your child.
Your child may want to listen to the story and gaze at the pictures when you first start reading to them. But as they get used to being read to, their interests deepened, and they become intrigued by the letters and sentences. They begin to understand that these characters are the source of the story. They begin to figure out the building blocks of language.
As your child continues to develop, it’s essential to keep reading to them. Over time their interest in the pictures will be replaced by their interest in the story itself and the way it’s communicated to them.
This is the point where following along by running a finger along with the words as the parent enunciates them helps get a child interested in how letters and words represent the sounds the child is hearing.
They may begin to recognise that certain letters represent certain sounds. This is the point at which the parent should introduce simple alphabet exercises and recognition games into a child’s daily routine to encourage this interest.
Improving Cognitive Development
Studies have shown that reading to a child improves their cognitive development. Through the simple act of storytelling, they begin to put together the thought processes of making decisions and problem solving that will help them develop their sense of logic as well as their sense of right and wrong.
By questioning aspects of the story and talking it over with their parents, the child begins to make sense of the world and vocalises their feelings about it. Their vocabularies, as well as their cognitive development, will begin to improve the more they ask questions and receive answers from the parents.
Preparing a Child for an Education
By combining this development of language skills and cognitive development, the parent is providing the child with a head start for their formal educational process.
Using this pure personal and intimate acting of reading to the child on a regular basis, the parent prepares the child for a lifetime of learning by instilling in the child a growing interest in reading. This will enable them to unlock the mysteries of vocabulary and language as a means of communication that the child can use to explore the world around them.
The child will be much more capable and ahead of their peers by developing these skills early in their development. They are also likely to enjoy their formal education much more because they equate the educational process with the love and intimacy shown by their parents in reading to them regularly.
The Apple Tree International Kindergarten is an early years development school in Bangkok. To learn more about the benefits of reading to your child and how you can best prepare your child for entering school, contact Apple tree Kindergarten, and schedule a consultation with one of our education specialists.