My Town Tutors is a great resource for parents & teachers. Find qualified tutors in your area today!
Please Share!
Top Twitter Accounts for Teachers & 101 Quotes for Teachers
Top Joke Pages
Guest Blog Page & Top 50 Guest Blogs of ALL-Time
Check out our complete list of 100+ Guest Blogs! & 365 Family Friendly Jokes!
While most parents understand that getting their child to read is an important part of their development and education, they may not understand just how important it is and in what ways it can benefit a child’s chances at success later in life. Knowing what these benefits are is a good way for parents to be even more motivated to encourage their children to read or get them help if they are struggling.
Building Verbal Communication Skills
One of the most important ways that reading affects a child’s success is by developing their language skills. Strong language skills are crucial in succeeding in not only academic settings but in the workforce as well. In fact, studies have shown that the size of a person’s vocabulary is a good predictor of their salary. Almost every job listing you can find lists strong communication skills as one of the job requirements. Clearly this is a highly sought after job skill.
Reading to your child early and often will help them get a head start on the process of learning language. Reading to them helps them associate sounds with written letters, and begin to learn the meanings of both the sounds and the letters. Babies and young children are wired for learning language quickly so the more you can teach them while they are young, the better off they will be. It is for this reason that parents are often encouraged to teach young children foreign languages as well as their native language, because there will be no better time in their life for learning a new language.
Building Written Communication Skills
Written communication skills are at a premium in our society. Writing well is a rare skill indeed, and those who have the ability to do so will be valuable in the workforce. Reading is one of the best ways for a child to improve their skill at writing. It is a case of learning through example. Reading well written content and well-constructed sentences is a great way to learn how to replicate them later. Ask any successful author and they will tell you that good writing comes from practice and a lot of reading.
Improving Comprehension
The more practice a child gets at reading, the greater their reading comprehension will be. Reading comprehension is important because having a high level of reading comprehension means that the child will be able to internalize new information quicker and will gain more knowledge the first time he or she reads something. This will lead to improved academic performance and make studying more efficient for the child. This skill is especially important with new and difficult texts. Being able to learn new information quickly through reading is a great skill in both academic and workplace settings.
Developing Critical Thinking Skills
Reading also helps children develop logical and critical thinking skills. Through reading, they can begin to make associations between abstract ideas and think through problems and situations logically. Developing these internal processes is critical for the child to be able to develop problem solving and decision making skills later in life.
When all of these ways that reading affects the potential success of a child in life, it becomes quite clear to any parent that they should place a large emphasis on the importance of reading to their child. When the future success of their child is at stake, a parent should do everything in their power to put their child on the path to success, especially when it is as fun and easy as reading to them every day.
Author Bio: Brian Burton loves reading children’s books and running the blog at childrensbookstore.com. He often writes on the topics of kids books and parenting.
My Town Tutors is a website that connects parents with teachers who tutor. We currently list over 250 teachers in Massachusetts. We are always looking for qualified teachers who tutor to join our national directory of teachers who tutor.
It is FREE for parents to search for a teacher in their area.