Five benefits of reading with children
When a baby is born, a health visitor comes to visit the parents on a number of occasions. On at least one of these visits, the health visitor will speak to the parents about reading with their newborn. They will also gift the parents a baby book pack from the Bookstart charity (Bookstart for Health Visitors, 2019). This is because the NHS (as well as many a child development researcher, teacher and many others) consider “promoting the best start in speech, language and communication” (Health Visitor, n.d.) to be one of the most important aspects of a child’s development, alongside growth, nutrition, accident prevention and mental health (among others).
What is it about reading with children that is SO important that parents are advised to start as soon as the baby is born (or even in utero)? There are countless reasons, and different people will prioritise these reasons in very different ways. The following are just a handful of reasons picked by one researcher from one institution. If you have a completely different ‘top five’, or agree with some but not with others, please let me know in the comments.
Family reading under covers
- Helps families to bond
Taking the time to share a book with a child, and avoiding external distractions (such as mobile telephones or other devices) shows them that they are important to you, and that and that you value their company enough to dedicate time in your day for them. Whether you finish a book or not, the act of being with them and doing a shared activity will help them to feel loved and valued. Sharing a book is even better if it opens conversations about other things, even if that means moving onto a different topic entirely. Not only does it help with secure child attachment (e.g. Bus et al., 1997), but it increases parental warmth toward the child (Canfield et al., 2020).
- Instils a love of books
Book heart
We are all more likely to continue doing something if we enjoy it, and children are no different. Familiarising children with books from an early age and making reading a fun and enjoyable experience will encourage further engagement with books. This, in turn, will help children build reading fluency, inference-making and vocabulary, among other skills.
- Exposes children to more extensive vocabulary than everyday conversation
Storybooks are able to explore a much wider range of topics than daily activities. The only constraints are imagination. This means that even reading book text alone, with no additional discussion, will expose children to a wider vocabulary than most other types of talk (Cameron-Faulkner & Noble, 2013). If caregivers also take the opportunity to discuss the book and relate it to the child’s own experiences and opinions, the gains are greater still (Noble et al., 2018).
- Familiarises children with language ‘flow’
When we read books, we automatically add in the grammar and punctuation in the form of pauses and emphasis. This teaches children that language is not just sticking together a bunch of words – it is so much more than that. Everyday conversation does not have the same flow as written texts. Although talking to children is vital for their language development, speech does not flow in the same way as when you are reading.
- Introduces children to different sounds within words
Children’s storybooks often contain rhyme (words that end with the same sound, e.g. fat and cat) and alliteration (words that start with the same sound, e.g. butterfly and ball). When children are exposed to books with rhyme and alliteration, they are more sensitive to these constructs (e.g. Hayes, 2001). Breaking down words and recognising sounds within words helps with learning to read and write.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter WHY adults read with children, as long as they DO. There are so many benefits and not a single downside (as long as the content is appropriate).
Bookstart for Health Visitors. (2019). Booktrust. https://www.booktrust.org.uk/what-we-do/programmes-and-campaigns/bookstart/practitioners/delivering-bookstart/bookstart-for-health-visitors/
Bus, A.G., Belsky, J., van-Ijzendoorn, M.H & Crnic, K. (1997). Attachment and bookreading patterns: A study of mothers, fathers, and their toddlers. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 12, 81-98.
Cameron-Faulkner T. & Noble, C. (2013). A comparison of book text and child directed speech. First Language, 33(3), 268-279. doi:10.1177/0142723713487613.
Canfield, C.F., Miller, E.B., Shaw, D.S., Morris, P., Alonso, A. & Mendelsohn, A.L. (2020). Beyond language: Impacts of shared reading on parenting stress and early parent-child relational health.
Hayes, D.S. (2001). Young children’s phonological sensitivity after exposure to a rhyming or non-rhyming story. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 162(3), 253-259. https://doi-org.ezproxy.lancs.ac.uk/10.1080/00221320109597482
Health Visitor. (n.d.). NHS. https://www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/explore-roles/public-health/roles-public-health/health-visitor/health-visitor
Noble, C., Sala, G., Peter, M., Lingwood, J., Rowland, C.F., Gobet, F. & Pine, J. (2018). The impact of shared book reading on children’s language skills: A meta-analysis. Educational Research Review, 28, 100290. DOI: 10.1016/j.edurev.2019.100290
Written by Dr. Daphne Barker for LULLU