Benefits of Reading Stories To Children



Benefits of Reading Stories To Children

One of Bookstart’s principal aims is to help all children to develop a love of books from a very early age, so the Bookstart Programme provides free book packs to encourage parents and carers to share books with their babies. Research carried out for Bookstart since it began in 1992 has shown that babies and toddlers who receive an early introduction to books do better at school in terms of literacy and numeracy, have good concentration and imaginative skills.

Recently research undertaken by Professor Yvonne Kelly points to storytelling as a key to children’s development.

Reading to children daily could reduce the number of 3 and 5 year olds with socio-emotional problems by 20%.

Sharing stories with children helps them to learn about themselves and about their world; it helps them to develop their listening and language skills. It increases their vocabulary and, as already mentioned, it develops their imaginative and concentration skills too. Babies and very young children enjoy the closeness of sharing a book with their adult carer, the reassuring sound of the parent’s voice, the cuddling, the calming effect, the ‘down’ time. They start to associate books with this comforting experience and with pleasure. Books become familiar to them and not something ‘unknown’ or scary.

Young babies very soon master the mechanics of a book and learn that by opening the pages they will discover different pictures, they enjoy touchy-feely or noisy books (and like chewing them as well)! These early encounters with books are helping the baby to develop its expectations of what books have to offer and the urge to find out more.

Obviously, Bookstart aims to encourage family book-sharing at home, but it also encourages parents and carers to use their library as an important resource for borrowing books and for taking part in library rhyme –times (Baby Boogie) and of course, story sessions.

Story sessions in the library provide benefits for the children and adults who attend, and also for us too!

Children will enjoy the whole experience of sitting with other children, listening to the story as it unfolds, and, in the case of picture-books, looking at the pictures. Following the sequence of a story helps them to build up expectations of what might happen next and also helps them to relate events which take place in stories to their own life experiences. Most children’s stories follow a conventional pattern, and progress from the introduction to characters through a series of events to a (usually) happy ending. We are all familiar with…..’Once upon a time……..they all lived happily ever after’! Many children’s stories draw upon this traditional fairy tale convention of suspense and ultimate reassurance. The more children encounter this pattern to stories the more they will learn to anticipate and enjoy their story experience.

I would also make the point that whilst children enjoy being read to, adults do too! Adults often say that they really enjoyed listening to a story for a change and some have remarked that it provided a few precious moments of peace and relaxation!

Some adults may not feel very confident about reading stories to children so if they are able to observe and listen to library staff at story sessions they will pick up ideas which they can put into practice at home. The stories we read can introduce them to authors and books they may not have come across before and will broaden their own reading experience as well as their children’s.

As library staff we can enjoy selecting books we would like to introduce and share with children at storytime. One of the main benefits for us is seeing first-hand how children respond to a particular story and it is especially pleasing when we can see them really enjoying it!

Staff who regularly read stories will soon become familiar with their children’s stock and will also ‘tune in’ with what children want to hear. (i.e. the current favourites).

The more you read stories to children the more confidence you will gain in selecting and delivering stories. It is, and should be, fun for everyone involved!

If you need more encouragement – take a look at some of the work Michael Rosen does in schools. He champions reading stories to children and is very outspoken on the subject of reading to children in class which he feels has had a very low priority in schools due to the emphasis on literacy achievement targets.

We are very lucky that there is such a wide range of wonderful children’s books to choose from, for us to introduce children to the magic of stories and to help them develop a lifelong love of books.

Remember: “Because everything changes when we read”.

Other useful websites are:-

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