It’s pretty clear that reading is a fundamental skill in today’s society. A large majority of what we learn in school depends on literacy skills. It’s crucial to build those skills from a young age to prepare children for the school career before them. Here are five important facts about early reading that every parent should know.
Here at Twin Sisters Digital Media, we believe that learning to read from an early age will set children up for success. Learning does not have to wait until Pre-K or Kindergarten; you can incorporate reading and literacy skills into your toddler’s life at home! There are countless benefits for teaching children to read early in life that many people are unfamiliar with. Today, let’s go over five fast facts about early reading that we feel every parent should know!
Literacy Skills Come From More Than Just Reading
Many parents don’t understand how children younger than five can learn to read. The truth is, literacy skills can come from many other sources! Music is a proven way to expose children to many literacy skills including rhymes, alliteration, sentence structure, and more! Your toddler cna listen to songs or audiobooks and learn valuable skills that will make reading simpler later on. We encourage parents to bring in some books so that children can become familiar with letters, words, and other aspects of reading/writing. Twin Sisters Digital Media offers an enormous selection of early childhood books that come with a follow-along audio track. The more your child “reads” and listens, the more they can associate a spoken word to a written one! Illustrations depicting the story can also help children to understand concepts more easily, so our ebooks, activity books, worksheets, etc. have a lot of imagery to look at! You’ll be shocked to see how much a child can learn about reading from things that aren’t typically associated with it.
The First Five Years of A Child’s Life Is A Period Of Enormous Growth In Knowledge and Skills
Countless studies have shown that a child’s brain grows and learns the most between birth and the age of five. Many children do not enter the school until they are 4 or 5, meaning some of the most valuable years for learning are not taken advantage of. Very young children can absorb information like sponges absorb water! By taking a bit of learning into your own hands, you can help your child be a step ahead when it comes time to attend school. As we mentioned earlier, you do not need to sit your toddler down with a book to teach them literacy skills; expose them to educational songs, audiobooks, videos, and more! Much like the many interactive learning websites, your child will gain knowledge while they think they’re just having a fun time!
Children’s Books Can Teach Your Kids Valuable Life Lessons
We are all familiar with children’s books that are meant to teach readers a lesson. Kids learn extremely well by watching a story play out in books. They can see what the main character does in each situation to learn how they can handle similar circumstances in real life. Stories featuring humans or talking animals keep kids entertained and show them “first hand” accounts of characters having to overcome a moral dilemma. Twin Sisters Digital Media has hundreds of ebooks, audiobooks, and more focused on teaching early readers about manners, friendship, and other personal topics. We even have classic stories such as The Ugly Duckling to teach children that it is okay to be different and that we should never tease others for not looking the same way you do. This is a heavy topic that parents may struggle to discuss one-on-one, but the story can get the lesson across in a way that the kids will understand and enjoy.
Reading Exposes Children To A Wider Vocabulary
Early readers are known to have a wider vocabulary earlier on in life than non-early readers. Reading books, seeing words, hearing stories told verbally, and connecting images to ideas will all widen your toddler’s vocabulary. Since younger kids can take in more information, why not give them a head start with more words under their belt than the typical toddler. Your child may start speaking earlier, forming full sentences sooner, or accurately expressing what they feel at a younger age. As you would imagine, having this wider vocabulary will be useful in school in both reading class and other subjects. It will be easier to communicate with your child which can prevent the tantrums parents are familiar with. It’s a win-win situation!
Early Readers Tend To Be More In Touch With Creativity
Lastly, early readers may be more creative than their non-reading counterparts. People love reading because the words come together to make a story. Unlike television and movies, it’s up to your imagination to create characters and scenery in your mind. Creativity is like a muscle in that it needs to be exercised. Children are inherently creative, and reading/learning literacy skills pushes them to use their imagination often. Creativity is important in early childhood development and can aid in problem solving, self-esteem, emotional understanding, and more. Listening to and reading stories can have the same impact on creativity, so either form of digital media is great! If you want to foster creativity, consider turning your child into an early reader!
There are hundreds of studies related to early reading, childhood development, and literacy skills. We couldn’t possibly go through all of the findings in one article, so we compiled a few of our favorite conclusions here. We strongly encourage you to do additional research on the topic because the findings can and will surprise you. To make a long story short, introducing your child to reading earlier in life is a great way to pave the way to success academically and in other aspects of life. We hope you’ll join the movement of early reading!
Visit www.twinsisters.com to purchase thousands of examples of digital media that can make learning to read fun for the whole family!