Reading is an essential language skill that children must learn. The benefits of reading can help your child both with their physical and mental development. Teaching them to enjoy reading and making reading fun will help them get all the benefits from reading that they. The benefits of reading for their mental health might be obvious, but how does reading help a child’s physical development?

What are the benefits of reading to your child?

Reading to your child at an early age can have benefits that will help with your child’s development in a variety of ways. Here are just some of the benefits of reading to your child from an early age:

1. Improved behavior – Reading to your child can help with any behavioral issues they might be having. Studies have shown that children whose parents have read to them since infancy show less aggressive behavior and hyperactivity when they are older. 
2. Develop imagination – Reading can greatly help your child develop their imagination. Reading stories to them regularly can help them become more creative. 
3. Learn vocabulary and language skills – Reading is the best way to increase vocabulary and expose your child to more sight words that they can learn. Reading to your child regularly can also help improve the other three language skills: writing, listening, and speaking. 
4. Attention span – Along with improved behavior, reading can help your child control their attention span. During reading time, your child is learning to focus on the activity and to keep their attention on the story. This can help them when they enter school and are able to control their attention during class time. 
5. Emotional development – Another benefit to reading is that it can help with your child’s emotional development. Reading to your child exposes them to different stories where they can learn how to be empathetic and also how to express what they are feeling. 
6. Brain growth – A big physical benefit of reading is brain growth and development. One study found that there was a huge difference in white matter in the brain between children who were regularly read to by a caregiver.

What are the physical benefits of reading? 

Brain growth is an important physical development for children. In the first five years, children develop rapidly. It is an important time in child development that sets the blueprint for learning in the future. Along with brain growth, there are many other physical benefits to reading to your child such as:

1. Brain development – Reading to your children at an early age can show a massive difference in their brain development. Children who are exposed to reading early on show stronger development in language-related areas in their brains which will be essential for learning in school.  
2. Stress reducer – Many people might not think children get stressed, but of course, they do! You can help your child reduce and learn to manage their stress through reading. Regular reading time with you can help with their stress-levels and in turn improve their physical health. 
3. Sleep improvements – Reading to your child every night can help them relax and improve their sleep. Sticking to this routine also helps to put them to sleep at a scheduled time. 
4. Fine motor skills – Making reading time interactive can help them improve their fine motor skills. Letting them turn the pages of a book helps with their fine motor skills or even playing with an interactive reading app can help. 
5. Memory increase – Children who are read to also get another brain boost through increased memory and retention. By reading and making connections within the text, children are learning to remember information and is a skill that is crucial for them to learn for school. 
6. Inspire kids to get moving – Since reading gets kids’ imagination working, they can get inspired by characters in stories to play and be active themselves.

How to make reading at home regularly fun? 

You can help your child’s imagination get going and get them to enjoy reading even more by using interactive apps like Readability. Readability is a multisensory reading app that gets kids inspired to read and move just like the characters in the stories!

Readability is a great app to help with their brain development as well. The app uses speech recognition technology and A.I. to help your child read original stories and detect errors in pronunciation. The app gives them instant feedback and helps them get through readings they might be struggling with. Your child really gets their brain power working with Readability.