Communication Benefits From Reading To Your Child

There is no greater skill that you can teach your child than the skill of communication. Communication is the tool that we use every single day in order to identify and articulate our needs and to work with others in society to get those needs met. But communication is an elusive thing to teach because it is done through daily experience rather than through planned lessons. One of the best ways that you can begin to develop the communication skills that your child will need all throughout life is to sit down for a short period of time each and every day to read to your child.

Reading to your child helps build the foundation of your child’s communication skills because it extends the child’s vocabulary, teaches him or her to modulate tone to convey different emotions and ideas and helps him or her to draw links between words and images which builds the ability to understand “the bigger picture” and therefore to relate better to others. Another communication benefit of reading to your child every day is that you are opening the daily lines of communication between your child and yourself through this reading time.

At a very basic level, reading to your child improves communication skills because it allows him or her to develop the vocabulary and grammar skills necessary to speak with others. Having a wider vocabulary will make it possible for your child to correctly identify what he or she is thinking or feeling and to convey that to others. This important skill will be used in every single relationship that your child has for the rest of his or her life so the more that you read to your child, the greater their future relationships with others will be. As you read aloud to your child, you will be using different voices and tones to express different emotions, teaching your child a range of appropriate expression which will enhance this overall communication.

At a more complex level, reading to your child teaches him and her about “the bigger picture” of life. By reading words aloud and then linking them the images happening in the books that you are reading together, you teach your child to interpret the same information in multiple ways. This helps to give a more well-rounded perspective to experience. Additionally, by reading to your child about a number of different fiction and non-fiction topics, you open up your child’s world to a variety of different experiences. With more information, your child will have a broader, more open view of the world and so will be in a better position to communicate with people from diverse backgrounds.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, reading to your child every day directly benefits the communication that you and your child have together. Simply spending that time with your child each day will help you to bond together and to create the positive relationship that stimulates good communication in your relationship. The books that you choose to read can also be starting points for conversation and you can use them to introduce topics that you want to discuss with your child, such as how to deal with strangers or what is happening with his or her body as she grows up. These topics which can sometimes be difficult to discuss can be taught during reading time in a more comfortable setting which will set the stage for ongoing positive communication which you will enjoy with your children long after they can read on their own.

Technorati Tags:communication, reading, child, kids, education