One of the best things that you can do for your child is to teach them to love reading from a young age for a lot of reasons.
Reading out loud to your children increases their reading comprehension, improves their language, emotional, and social development, and helps to make sure that you get to spend some quality time with them. It also helps you to build a bedtime routine for them that can help them to learn good sleep habits from a young age so that no matter where they’re sleeping, they’ll sleep like a baby.
There’s literally no downside to reading to your small children. If you want more information on how this helps, we’ve broken it down for you.
Why is a Full Night’s Sleep Important for Small Children?
Getting a full night sleep is important for people of any age, but it’s especially important for children because their brains are still developing so they need all of the energy that they can get. This helps them to be less fidgety, pay attention more, and make more friends, which will make your life easier in the long run.
How Does Reading Help?
Reading before bed offers some time for you as a parent to check in with your child about how they’re doing, both emotionally and physically.
Kids who read more are more imaginative and build empathy by realizing that there are experiences and even world outside of their own. It also helps them to feel that they are not alone in how they are feeling because the book character they’re reading about has felt that emotion, too. They will also learn how to deal with those emotions with their words instead of through aggressive behaviors, no matter what the feeling or problem is. This is incredibly important for their social and emotional development.
Reading also helps to teach them new words that they wouldn’t normally learn, as well as the context in which they should use that word. It can also help them to learn to speak earlier, especially if you read a lot of rhyming books to them. This will help your child to improve their language in all kinds of ways.
They are also more likely to learn to read earlier and to continue reading for fun simply because you showed enthusiasm for it when they were younger. What better habit to pass onto your children?
What Else Can You Include in Your Child’s Bedtime Routine?
– Brush teeth
– Put toys away
– Talking about your day
– Yoga
What Shouldn’t You Include in your Child’s Bedtime Routine?
– Snacks
– Screens
– Sugary Drinks
Reading is a perfect way to set your child up for success for the rest of their life and to help them create a bedtime routine that they can continue into their child, teen and adult selves. If you find that your child is struggling to sleep regularly, talk to your doctor to see if there is an underlying medical reason why this might be happening.
Our guest author, Jackie Kepler, is a MattressReviews.net sleep professional. She enjoys sleeping with cats, but sleeps on a king size bed because she needs her space, too.
