Every child needs to learn the building blocks of language and literary form within the first three years of their life. Your child's brain will double in size during the first year of life; a child's brain at three years of age has twice the amount of activity as an adult brain. It leads to a very clear result. Homes that promote literacy as a family produce children who are better readers and fare well in school. Helping your child to develop literacy and learning skills early gives them a solid foundation for school.
You should identify any reading issues your child has early; they need reading skills that are strong for learning every subject. Your child can attend school with the strongest literary skills when you read with them at home. Improve your child's language and literacy skills with six simple things.
1Read Aloud To Your Child
Significant changes in brain development occur when you read aloud to your children; this has been noticed in research. Making connections with various experiences is an excellent way for a child to discover what is around them. Learning essential skills and information creates crucial pathways that they will use their entire life. One of the most reliable ways to stimulate language and cognitive skills is reading out loud to your children. It is also an excellent approach to develop curiosity and memory.
One of the most important things to do, as parents, is reading aloud to your child. This will help your child recognize the importance of reading for pleasure, introduce more vocabulary words, build critical foundational skills, and show them expressive and fluent reading. Even before a child starts speaking, language development is stimulated by reading aloud.
2Don't Stop Reading
Your child will continue to benefit from all the connections made when you read aloud, even after they have started to learn on their own. Make learning fun and engaging, and select the most effective way from family cues. You will continue to have an influential role in your child's connection to reading and learning as they grow up.
Your child will continue to benefit from all the connections made when you read aloud, even after they have started to learn on their own. Reading aloud delivers these new words to your child in a context that they can understand and absorb. In the future, do not be surprised when your child is using any of those new and fancy words.
3Make Connections Between Books And Activities
Understanding what you are reading is the goal; however, do not get stuck on sounding out the words. By talking about the things you have experienced, watched on TV, or read about previously, you can help your child to connect with the text that they are now reading. Later, they can use this knowledge base to build on.
To verify that they are understanding and learning, you simply ask them questions. Even something as simple as asking what the book reminds them of will do. Depending on what your child is interested in, they will be able to connect with a book's story, any information shared with them on another story, some event that happened at school, or another life experience.
4Talk, Talk, Talk
Your voice is the first voice they heard when they were still in the uterus; a mother's voice has always been the most powerful sound they could hear. Continuing to talk with them is very crucial. The topic is not essential; just talk about anything, from the clothes they are wearing to the book that you are now reading. Until a child has progressed to making their own words, this is all they know. Talking with your child is much more than just talking around them, like when you are on the phone.
Make eye contact with your child and put your phone down. Your child needs to know that they are your main focus, so engage with your child. Strengthening your connection is very important, even if it is just repeating their babble back to them. In the future, your child will then put more effort into engaging with you.
5Make A Special, Cozy Space
Quiet time is needed for reading. Kids need a nice, safe environment to snuggle in and read. The pleasurable and safe feeling they get when you read with them will help your child form connections.
Wiring your child's brain to include reading as a normal part of their lives must occur in their earliest years. Having a dedicated space for reading a good book is needed in your home, so create a nice and cozy little reading nook for your child. It needs to be filled with comfortable stuff and kid-friendly things, such as bean bag chairs, furry rugs, pillows, and footstools. Unique little hiding spots, like under the stairs, provide the best results when creating a reading nook for your child.
6Choose Books About Things They Love
Children become very passionate about some things as they grow older. Just about anything, from princesses to trains or even dinosaurs, could catch their attention. Reading should bring out that passion your child holds; when you go and check out books at the library, choose books for them to read that have topics your child is very passionate about. To keep them excited in reading, do this as often as possible. When your child chooses a book, you can identify their preferences and personality traits.
Keep your child's preferences in mind when choosing a book for them to read. Read the passages from the books aloud to your child to verify that the novels or informational books you chose match their interest. This is a major investment for your child's spirit and mind to find the right books to catch their attention. When you purchase books for your child, pay close attention and get the most suitable ones.
You can use any everyday activity to teach your child how to read and write, such as reading a book, writing a simple note, checking what is on TV, sorting the laundry, or simply just going over what happened that day. Everything you do and read can be shared with your child. Take the daily newspaper and read a section aloud and explain why you find it interesting. Improving your child's language skills and literacy can be done in numerous ways. Boost your child's development every day with something as simple as sharing stories and singing with them.
They can build a love for reading and increase their language skills by becoming familiar with words and sounds. Improving their literacy skills is fun in this manner. Use these building blocks to help your child and reap the best results.