However small your son may be, he will enjoy reading, stories, poems and nannies that attract his attention. Dad and mom's voice hug him and open a new world of sounds, of stimuli. Reading contributes to the global development of people and it has an important influence on children's cognitive, affective, social, emotional and linguistic development.
Thanks to the words of his first books, intelligence, creativity, imagination, verbal ability and concentration of children are stimulated. But is any book worth it? How to read young children? It's very simple, our grandparents and parents did not do workshops to read stories. Even so, we offer you some tips that will help us understand the importance and benefits of reading.
Benefits that, let's not forget that not only do they refer to their training and their intellectual and psycho-affective development, but they also relate to enjoyment, mere fun. And is that reading is also a good way to rejoice, to dream, to invent, to play ... Let's see how.
Tips for reading to children
Do not extend the stories. Young children cannot follow long arguments or keep a lot of attention, so it is better to choose short stories.
Let me choose your book, his story. Just as there are days when we feel like a certain genre in reading or cinema, they will have their preferences. But, of course, for this to be possible, the child must have a choice.
Create your small library and leave books within the reach of children. That they manipulate special books for children, old magazines, that see the letters and photographs pass, the drawings ...
"The verb read does not support the imperative", says the writer Daniel Pennac in his essay "Like a novel", where he addresses the problem of lack of reading in adolescents. Do not force your child to read something he does not want or does not feel like at that time. Of course, don't read him if he doesn't feel like it. There will be more moments.
The right time you decide both. Some days your child will not be for readings, but, being realistic, it is likely that you are the one who most often does not feel like it or is encouraged to read it. In this sense, it is good that dad and mom get involved, because you can read each time one. To get all the benefits of reading aloud you have to relax and enjoy, without hurry, do not take it as an obligation.
Play with your voice, imitate the voices and sounds of the characters, changing to different tones (low, high pitched voice ...) and don't forget the volume, shouting, whispering ... according to the moment in the story. You can also sing, recite ...
Very related to the previous point we have this: become an actor. When you read you have to use the whole body and not just the voice: the hands, the gestures, the look, the tone of voice imitating the characters ... they are very important. You can get up, imitate movements, make the sounds of atmosphere ... To read aloud to children you have to put enthusiasm and get into the story.
Your son will interrupt you and this must be accepted as part of the story. He will want to know more, make his contributions, ask ...: a small child is not quiet or still during a story. So, you have to take advantage of this for the benefit of history and its learning.
If your child has not understood what we have read, repeat the phrase or make a summary. Read slowly and choose the right books for your age (soon we will return to it).
Be patient if he asks you to read the same story for several days. This gives them security because they know the story, can make new suggestions, have imagined different developments ... and also accelerates the acquisition of vocabulary.
When they are not so small and especially with stories they already know you can make small "traps", change words, add meaningless phrases ... because the absurd result surprises them and has fun.
Books are a great gift for children. We can buy them or ask the family for birthdays, at Christmas ...
Although you cannot read very loudly in the library, it is important that you visit it from time to time to choose new books to take home. Also, from time to time, we can go to the bookstore if we want to make a special gift and choose it himself.
Watch the movie. Many classic stories have their cartoon version and children love to "compare." You can also do it the other way around, if you have already seen, for example, "The Three Little Pigs" Disney will love to read the written version or see the illustrations of the book (and I put this example because many children are fascinated with this Disney short and then They are interested in books.)
In short, by reading them aloud we create moments shared with our children of great emotional value and we get them to start loving books, to be interested in them and hopefully in the future they are good readers and they are interested in reading new stories themselves. But there is still a lot for that, so let's start by knowing which books are best for young children.
Surely you remember some special moment of your childhood, some book or special story. When in the lap of mom or dad, or in bed before sleeping, or when you spent so many days sick, they made you fly thanks to the magical world of words.
Do not deprive your child of that wealth, reading is a healthy habit on a personal and family level and we hope that with these tips for reading to young children, many more embark on this adventure. Happy reading!
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