The Benefits of Learning to Read at a Young Age

Reading impacts your child’s intellectual development

Learning to read at a young age does more than just give a head start in education. The skill helps the brain grow by providing it ample opportunities to think creatively, abstractly, and rationally. While the brain isn’t technically a muscle, the more your child exercises it through reading, the more their brain will grow.

When your child reads (or even when you read to them) they’re exposed to new facts and ideas they normally wouldn’t be exposed to. It doesn’t matter if the book is fiction or non-fiction either. While non-fiction books will help increase your child’s analytical thinking and overall knowledge of the world around them, fiction books help them use their imagination. By exercising the brain in such a way, it is setting the groundwork for learning and absorbing information later in life.

Reading also lends itself to a discussion. As your child dives into the world of books, they’ll start to ask questions about what they’ve read and the meaning of words. Those types of conversations with your child helps to promote language development and comprehension. Reading also helps them to better understand sentence structure as well…

Exposure to books at a young age is also instrumental in developing vocabulary. In fact, children’s books contain 50% more uncommon words than primetime television. This is a big deal because having an extended vocabulary allows children (and adults for that matter) to be able to process information a lot faster.

The good news is, all of the aforementioned benefits of reading don’t have to wait until your child is old enough to read on their own. The benefits start as soon as you start reading to your child, which can happen as soon as they’re born. If you’re not sure where to start with that, Parents Magazine has a great age-by-age guide for reading to your children here. The guide also includes the benefits your child will experience as they develop.