It is never too early to bring the wonderful habit of reading to our children. You will like to know that one way to create great readers tomorrow is to serve as an example, it is to be that model in which children can look first as a curiosity and then as an imitation.
Another important aspect that is worth taking into account is that many children today see reading more as an obligation than a pleasure. This is due more than anything to the classic imposition that is sometimes carried out in schools. Children should approach books freely and being able to choose those titles that interest them the most. Adults must be simple facilitators, simple role models. Only then will your brains enjoy those wonderful gears that make it easy to read. In «Mothers Today» we explain it to you.
Reading creates multiple neural connections
According to an interesting study carried out at the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, in Ohio, reading aloud to children from birth stimulates their neural development and specifically, those areas related to cognitive processes.
Age does not matter
As this work reveals, it is not necessary to wait for children to acquire literacy skills at school for us to give them a book for the first time. In fact, the path should be the other way around. We must start ourselves, at home, and from the first months of life.
- Reading aloud is communication, it is the use of a certain tone that will stimulate children's attention and emotion.
- The more moments of reading, the more activity in the parietal areas of the babies' brains, some areas that will be in charge little by little to outline the competences of the language and its association with a meaning. Day by day and month by month, babies will understand what they hear.
Yes to ordinary communication combined with moments of reading
Something curious that we have to take into account is that the way we speak to a baby is far from the type of language that we find in a book, in a story.
Even though they don't understand it yet that speech and that tonality that is acquired when reading aloud, captures the child's curiosity, bringing a very interesting flow of oxygen to his brain, and especially to those areas related to emotions, such as the hippocampus.
Reading aloud allows us to connect with our babies from an early age.
The effects of relaxed reading
Relaxed reading is what we share with our children before going to sleep. It is important that we encourage these moments of complicity with children in which we also read aloud to them. Far from being a waste of time, what we achieve is so important and wonderful that we should not neglect it.
- The brain area that will benefit the most from the “listening” process in our reading aloud, will be the prefrontal area, basic to develop and enhance many cognitive processes in children, from attention, imagination and more complex reasoning.
- Shared reading strengthens the bond with our children, offers them security, recognition, we strengthen their self-esteem and combat stress and anxiety. Sometimes things as simple as picking up a story and reading aloud to a child have amazing benefits.
Keys to promote reading in your children and thus enhance their brain development
A child's meaningful learning is consolidated through curiosity and freely produced imitation. For this, we need above all a motivated brain, where dopamines generate these types of changes to produce a very specific activity.
If there is imposition, there is rejection, and a child's brain will not release dopamines or endorphins. Far from feeling pleasure in reading, he will see it as an external imposition. So ... how to get a child to start in the exciting world of reading.
Models and inciters
- As we have pointed out at the beginning, we are your best facilitators. If they see us reading, if they see books all over the house, it is very likely that they themselves will approach them.
- Another fact to keep in mind is that before imposing, it is better to incite, suggest, informr. It is clear that they, in their early years, do not know what titles may be of interest to them, therefore, it never hurts to tell them what genres exist, what authors, what titles ...
- If we know the tastes of our children, it will be easy for us to bring them closer to certain books with which they can undoubtedly discover related characters and stories that will mark them for life.
Yes to a weekly walk through a bookstore, yes to a library card
Take them to a bookstore and let them choose the title they want. Don't worry if the first thing they get their hands on is a graphic novel or a comic.. Everything is reading, and each child will approach books in some way. He may even do it through the cinema, that after seeing a movie he becomes interested in a book. It doesn't matter, respect his choice, support him, give him freedom.
At night we turn off the TV and the computer: better a book
This data is important, according to a study published in the journal "American Academy of Pediatrics"children between the ages of 2 and 6 should not be exposed to television or electronic devices for more than one hour a day. From 7 to 12 years it would be appropriate not to exceed 2 hours.
If children are subjected to electromagnetic waves from television or computers from a very early age, we run the risk of develop an attention deficit in the little ones, because their brains, and specifically, the frontal cortex, still immature, it gets too over-active.
Two hours before going to sleep, we must close all electromagnetic devices and take them to bed to relax. If we give them a book, we will foster a passion for reading and we will get them to rest more optimally. We will develop their imagination and also, the children will reach that dream world at the hands of wonderful characters and fantasy worlds. Worth it.
Remember, if you found this article interesting, also discover what they are the best books for children between 7 and 12 years old.
Reading has always improved people's culture, a shame that this habit is increasingly being lost.
Completely agree! Thanks for reading, greetings from the entire team.
Very interesting article. I consider very important the point that parents read and facilitate access to books, it is undoubtedly decisive in the relationship that children establish with them.
Of course, all of us are to serve as role models for the child. This is the only way we facilitate their curiosity. Books are that precious asset that they should look at as soon as possible, and if it is in our lap when they still don't even know how to walk, the emotional imprint will be indelible. Thanks for comment!