Using Children's Books to Support Parenting

How to Improve a Child's Communications Skills

The benefits of reading to a young child is way beyond what most parents realize. Besides creating a stronger bond between you and your child, reading to a child increases a child's vocabulary and communications skills. Hearing a story which a child can relate to, helps them to learn how to formulate words to express themselves.

We as adults often take a toddlers talking for granted. Their little minds, in the beginning, don't really know how to express themselves. They talk all the time, but few can understand them.

Reading to a toddler helps the child to learn how to formulate their thoughts. A child's communications skills are enhanced when you read to them. Story-time at the preschool or day care is an important time each day. Having this same kind of quality time with your child, at home, is crucial.

Think about it. A child doesn't know to read from right to left, nor do they understand to read the words separate from the pictures. Reading to your child as they read along with you, helps the child to identify words and creates a basic understanding of the pattern used for reading.

Reading helps develop and increase a child's curiosity and aptitude for learning. The thought of lines on a page communicating a funny, cute or adventurous story intrigues a young child to learn more and be able to read for themselves.

Reading to a child helps to instill independence. When the child picks up a book and pretends to read, this is the first sign of wanting to read for themselves. As time passes, they will be able to sound out the words, or read the words by sight. This is a major accomplishment for a young child.

Using Children's Books to Support Parenting

One of the best ways to help a child understand difficult situations is to read a story about the difficulty the child may be experiencing. When the child hears a story about another child with a similar problem to his own, the child can relate.

Parent's should not under-estimate the power of problem solving delivered through children's books. Young children may forget what you tell them, but they rarely forget the story you read to them, especially if it was funny, cute or memorable.

Reading the same story over and over, usually at the request of the young child, reinforces the lesson learned from the story. Wise parents take time to find quality children's books to help re-enforce parenting.