10 Benefits of Reading-Aloud to Babies

Without the Motivation to Read, Children Don't Read

It is vital that nannies and au pairs read to children of every age to help kids develop the love of reading. In the book,Baby Read-Aloud Basics,Caroline J. Blackmore and Barbara Weston Ramirez they explain that without the motivation to read, children don’t read.

In Baby Read-Aloud Basicsthe authors describe ways babies benefit from a daily read-aloud routine. They explain that the emotional, mental, physical, and sensory benefits of daily reading to a baby are to great to
ignore!

Since the baby’s brain is equipped to absorb enormous amounts of information evidence shares that seemingly passive babies are, in terms of brain activity, more active than adults. They share that not only the time from birth to two-years-old critical for language development, but the foundation of learning development and future academic success.

Here are 10 benefits of reading-aloud to babies:

1. Reading-Aloud Promotes Listening Skills
When a child has the ability to listen attentively, he can easily absorb the thousands of words of the vocabulary, sounds, and structure of language. By listening, he will eventually understand the meaning of what is being said. Soon he will begin speaking all those words he has heard from birth.

2. Reading-Aloud Increases the Number of Vocabulary Words Babies Hear
Research shows that the number of words babies hear each day is the single most
important predictor of future intelligence, school success, and social skills. Providing quality and quantity of language is necessary for a child’s academic success.

3. Reading-Aloud Develops Attention Span and Memory
Children who are read to on a daily basis are known to have long attention spans.

4. Reading-Aloud Helps Babies Learn Uncommon Words
When you read to a baby, he hears your words from the book. Words from children’s books are different and more unusual than everyday conversational words.

5. Reading-Aloud Help Babies Learn to Understand the Meanings of Words
Children learn vocabulary in the home from birth to five from hearing their parents, caregivers, and other adults talk and read to them.

6. Reading-Aloud Help Babies Learn Concepts About Print
In Kindergarten and even first grade, some children can’t distinguish between a word, letter, or number. These concepts along with other knowledge about books such as recognizing the front cover with the title, are tested in kindergarten with the CAP (Concepts About Print) test. Children who have been read to since birth will easily know these concepts.

7. Reading-Aloud Helps Babies Learn to Get Information from Illustrations
Illustrations are almost as important as the text in baby books when it comes to generating and inspiring imagination.

8. Reading-Aloud Promotes Bonding and Calmness for Both Baby and Caregiver
Reading aloud is one of the easiest and least complicated of all the daily tasks that you do to bond with the baby.

9. Reading-Aloud Stimulates the Imagination and All the Senses
Teachers notice that children who watched several hours of television a day when they were
babies and preschoolers show less creativity and imagination. Listening to a storyteller or a story from a book helps children learn to form images in their heads using sensual memories like how things feel, taste, smell, sound, or look.

10. Reading-Aloud Instills the Love of Books and Learning
When a nine– or 10-month-old independently goes to pull out his books from her bookshelf, she does so because she has experienced that books gives pleasure even when she just sits for a short time by herself and looks at them.