In the journey of parenting, surely you’ve heard about the enormous benefits of reading and storytelling to a child's language development. However, Is picking up a book and reading a story to your kid from beginning to end enough? Or do we need to do something else? In this article, Monkey will provide you with a parent guide to reading for Ages 0-6 so that they can develop their language skills.
How can reading help children develop their language? According to research by Professor Taira Masato at Tokyo Medical University, when parents read their kids stories, it can help the limbic system which supports a variety of functions, including emotion, behavior, and long-term memories develop. Therefore, being read to can enable your kids to improve language skills, express emotions and imagination.
The stories parents read to kids every day are likely to build their rich imagination and association based on the content of each picture book. Children will move from one association to another through emotive language expressed vividly, easily understood with colorful pictures and illustrations.
In addition, if parents read stories to their children on a regular basis, they would have an early desire for being able to read in order to understand the content of books instead of just looking at pictures.
Thus, to help your child develop language ability, association, emotional expression outstandingly and remarkably, and foster, increase his/her emotional intelligence, let’s pick up a book and read it with your kid.
What should you do when engaging in shared reading activities with your kid?
To maximize the benefits of shared reading with your little kids, pay attention to the following stages:
- First, teach your kid how to handle books carefully to preserve them, always treat them nicely and kindly as close friends. Before picking up and holding any book, remind your kid to wash his/her hands and handle books properly unless pages can be torn or distorted.
- Then, parents set up the best reading environment with a good vibe and appropriate time sector.
You should take part in shared reading activities with your kid at a certain time everyday, and make sure your kid is happy, full, bathed, not sleepy or angry. Also, choose a certain place for sitting down and start reading. It can be a kid's study desk, or “a miracle rug" that only sitting down, your kid knows for sure it's reading time. Apart from that, minimize the external factors and noises by reducing activities causing distractions, making reading time a TV, smartphone - free activity.
- While reading to your kid, remember not to stop and let him/her ask any questions related to the story. The No.1 rule is to read the whole story before having a discussion with your child as by doing so, the kid will not lose interest in listening.
- If you want to read two picture books to your kid in a row and still have him/her engaged in the activity, let him/her take a long or short break depending on the length of the stories.
- If you see your child is not staying focused on the story you are telling, don't rush, be patient and pay attention to his/her feelings and emotions, or stop then ask your kid what does he/she really want? If the kid wants to play a game, play with him/her and leave reading another time of the day.
- Parents should ask kids questions related to the stories told to know what they think, how they feel, whether they remember the content or not, and how they love the story. You can consider some questions such as “Which character do you like?”, “What is good about the character?”
Beside “Reading and Storytelling with your kids - develop their language”, you can learn many other tips in the article “ 6 ways to improve your preschool child's language development: free and effective”
Childhood is an important period to nurture a human's emotion and brain development. Through shared-reading with your kid, it can help strengthen the bond and improve your child's language ability. Accompany your child growing up happily.
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