Every parent wishes for a well-rounded and intelligent child who has every advantage that they did not have themselves. One key part of helping your child to excel, is to give them a firmly solid vision and understanding of the world in which they live. Especially for children who live in geographically limited areas, or under financially limited constraints, early reading is the one thing that is always available to all that truly levels the playing field. In fact, it is said that the stories that children take in as they are read to by their parents are a major influence on the vision and scope of the world that the child can conceive. That’s not just an opinion, it’s scientific. Let’s take a look at a few of the ways that makes for a truly powerful influence for a young child.
The brain can’t tell fiction from reality.
The best thing about reading stories to your child is the number of places that they will be able to travel to. Whether you are reading about another country, or outer space, vivid worlds are painted with the words that you share with your children while you are reading to them. As it turns out, these words are not just words. Scientists have confirmed that as your child visualizes the various places you take them to in their early reading stories, their brain can’t easily distinguish between fantasy and reality. The brain activity that registers when a child is imagining a place or situation is actually almost identical to the brain activity that would register if the child were actually visiting that same place or situation. This extraordinary discovery opens the pathways to any experience or place that a parent wants to share with a child. The best way to broaden a horizon for your young ones can actually be found within a book!
Complexities become graspable.
Well-known psychologist Dr. Keith Oatley has shared, “Just as computer simulations help us get to grips with complex problems like flying a plane or forecasting the weather, so novels, stories, and dramas help us understand the complexities of social life.”
When your young child listens to the complex experiences that are traversed by the characters in a story, it actually can help them cognitively build logic bridges that will assist them in traversing real life situations and challenges in their future. This means that even if your child does not have the ability to be exposed to certain elements of life, you can influence their worlds, and their ability to manage within constructs unlike their own by adding consistent and varied readings to their nighttime reading sessions. Never again is there a reason to believe that there is something in the world that you can’t afford to give your child explosure to. The reality is that anything you would like for your child to experience is as close as the nearest set of books!
For these benefits to take hold your reading sessions with your child must be consistent. Take the time to enjoy sacred reading time with your child every evening and they will reap the rewards for a lifetime.
