Americans are falling farther and farther behind the rest of the global community, particularly with regards to reading and writing, both fundamental skill sets to succeed in nearly every other academic area.

One of the best ways to ensure that your child will be ahead of the game by the time they start school is to spend at least twenty minutes a day reading to them, an activity you both will enjoy, and one that will boost their ability to succeed.  Here are ten reasons why your child will benefit from you reading to them regularly:

The Benefits of Reading to Your Child Regularly

Your child’s imagination increases the most between the ages of three and seven.  This increase raises your child’s ability to be creative, leading to a higher ability to solve problems and think outside the box.  Reading to your child stimulates their imagination.

If you and your child have fun while you read together, eventually, they grow to associate reading with pleasure, which means that, eventually, they’ll want to read by themselves.  This is the best way to raise a lifelong reader who will eventually become a lifelong learner.  It also means they stand a better chance of staying in school until graduation.

You and your child can discuss the role of empathy in books you read together, which will in turn help your child become a more empathetic person. (Psychology Today)

Reading boosts your ability to think critically, an essential skill in every other academic area and the real world.

Sustained reading helps improve your child’s attention span, which will likewise help improve their chances at academic success.

Though watching television isn’t necessarily bad, as with everything else in life, too much can limit imagination, shorten attention spans, and lead to obesity.  Reading to your child provides an alternative to television.

Reading helps your child learn new facts and information!

Children learn from modeling.  By reading to your child – then showing your child that you read yourself – you offer them a role model they can emulate that will eventually lead to them reading by themselves.

A child who reads by themselves, especially at an earlier age, will demonstrate improved self-esteem.

Final Thoughts

Reading a variety of books and stories offers your child different models of writing that will increase their vocabulary, demonstrate grammatical concepts, and allow them to begin to write for themselves.  Whether they want to write creatively in a variety of genres or show an interest in more technical fields is up to them.  But you stand to improve their chances of developing strong writing skills by showing them their options as you read together.

By reading with your child, you form a special bond that will eventually allow them to expand their education horizons.  Someday, your super scholar will be able to amaze you with an amazing new career … all because you read together when they were tiny.