The Importance Of Cultivating Reading Habit In Children

The tech savvy world is compelling children to resort to mobile phones, television, laptops and tablets for finding their source of entertainment.

Studies suggest that excessive exposure to the blue light emitted from these gadgets is harmful for the sensitive eyes of children. Moreover, children actually need productive entertainment which they can get from reading books.

Reading is one of the most important habits that must be imbibed in children at an early age as it is not just a fun pastime but a great way to learn about the world, different people, cultures, philosophies, etc. Books cover limitless topics and it opens the mind to a whole new world of possibilities enabling children to tap their mind’s creative corners and helps them attain greater level of success at every phase in their lives.

To help parents encourage their children to read more, here are few reasons explaining the importance of cultivating reading habit in children:

1. Encourages Their Urge To Know More

Books cover versatile range of topics and are written in wide variety of reading levels. Books introduce children to the world in the most realistic manner engulfing topics about various cultures, ideas, people, civilisations, places, etc. This helps in building curiosity to get more knowledge about topics they love. 

They gradually start discovering topics they are interested in and makes reading a fun time activity. Without parents having to nag them to read, children who start reading at early age will automatically enjoy content of different kinds of books increasing their curiosity to learn more and more.

2. Right Source of Entertainment

For adults and kids alike, spending endless number of hours in front of gadgets for gaining their dose of entertainment has become quite common. Even though there are many educational television shows and apps available out there, books should always be their first choice. 

Instead of letting your children get their educational material from a screen that harms their vision, encourage your children to consider book reading, not by compulsion but out of self-interest. Studies have shown that families where reading is emphasised, children grow to cherish the reading habit for a lifetime.

3. Improves Vocabulary & Language Skills

Start reading to your kids before they can read books on their own. It is very essential to teach them to love reading by reading aloud the books they like. This will promote verbal communication skills in children. But as kids grow older, even though we speak to them about numerous topics, the vocabulary often becomes limited and repetitive. 

Reading books will expose children to a whole universe of words, sentence structures, styles of writing and different ways to express different emotions. Reading habit in children can not only improve their reading comprehension skills but will significantly develop their writing and communication skills. 

4. Strengthens Your Family Bond

The bond between parents and children must always be strong and reading is surely one habit that actualises it. There are several ways through which reading strengthens the bond between parents and children. During their infancy stage, when parents read out stories aloud, the closeness and time spent together creates love and respect in the children’s mind for their parents.

As children get older, parents can ask them to read aloud and discuss on various parts that they both find interesting. Parents can use book reading habit as an opportunity to connect and engage with their children. Talking about various topics covered in the book can enable children to have more open communication lines with their parents.

5. Makes Children Empathetic

In general, children actually have less understanding about the world around them due to their limited range of experiences and home circumstances. Also, to protect children, parents often keep their children in a secured environment that limits their understanding of the working of the outside world. 

When children get the opportunity to read about different kinds of people living in various parts of the world, they not only appreciate the variety but also get the chance of understanding other person’s perspective deeply. 

This actually helps children in realising how people in different parts of the globe are living in different circumstances. Such kind of learning shapes the minds of the children to be more understanding, empathetic and less judgmental.

6. Great For Attaining Success In Life

Numerous studies have revealed that children who read books from a young age tend to attain greater success in their school life. The lasting effect of success in school life helps them in being focused about their professional life. Reading habit in children makes them self-aware and the understanding of the world outside escalates their academic success to workplace success as well.

Reading helps children in boasting a learning attitude and when they understand the importance of upgrading their knowledge on a continual basis, they become productive and efficient in every sphere of their life.

7. Makes Them Creative

As contradictory to television where the visual images depict the essence of a story, reading enables children to tap their minds creative corners and create their own images to perceive a story. Whether real or fictional, reading introduces children to a whole new world that they have never experienced before. 

Reading books therefore, helps children in imagining new experiences and scenarios which prepare them to see the world with a creative perspective. They will start utilising this creativity to think out of the box ideas in play time, study time and thus push themselves beyond their limits to attain greater level of success. 

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8. Improves Concentration

For fussy toddlers who are always on the move, reading books is a great solution as it compels them to concentrate on the content. Focusing on reading books helps children in calming their minds and occupies them in productive activity. 

Create a reading ambience at home for your kids by removing distractions and comforting them in a quiet room and see for yourself how your children will keep themselves glued to the book. Even though they don’t understand the context at the first go, encourage them to read and explain what they understand.

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9. Perfect Workout For Their Brain

One has to put more concentration in comprehending what is written in books in comparison to watching television. When kids read books, the part of the brain used in multi-sensory integrations gets utilised that helps in making connections between words and promotes visual thinking.

To begin with, children can be given books with illustrations which help them in understanding the narrative and context for better comprehension. Unlike beginners, advanced readers make greater use of their brain while gathering context cues to help them comprehend the words and phrases that they are not familiar with. 

Reading also promotes critical thinking, encouraging children to connect the circumstances in the book with real life events and shape their opinions about the content of the book.

The Conclusion

To develop reading habit in children, parents must make steady efforts by not making it mandatory. Forcing your child to read will in fact, make them feel burdened. You can make reading a fun and collective activity to help your children read out of choice. 

Books come in versatile genres and let your child explore every genre so that he or she gets motivated to read more. Share with them your views of a book and ask for their opinions too. Moreover, children copy their parents and as parents, it is you who should first develop the habit of reading. 

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