The early language development of a child is extremely important. Both reading and listening play a crucial role in a child’s early brain development. Parents often indulge in storytime to boost the listening skills of their child and this actually has a significant impact on their skills. They do not only learn to listen and understand, but it also helps them learn how to read. You can commence reading to your child at any age. No age is too early to do that.
Children see how their parents or teachers read and start developing the same behavior, which further models their communication skills. Modern IB schools in Bangalore recognize the importance of listening and reading in early childhood, and hence pay special attention to building these skills in children during their initial years of education. Let’s dive deeper into it to understand some benefits of reading and listening for children:
Cognitive Benefits of Reading and Listening in Early Childhood
Reading and listening in early childhood can provide a number of cognitive benefits to children. Some of the significant benefits include:
Development of Language Skills and Comprehension Skills
Children who develop good listening skills at a young age are more likely to become good readers in later life. When children see their parents or teachers reading to them, they understand how to manipulate different sounds in a word. Listening leads to the understanding of vocabulary in children long before they start reading, which further enhances their reading and language comprehension skills.
Critical thinking with encouraging imagination and creativity
When reading with parents or teachers, children get to know how books are read. This is known as print awareness, which refers to understanding that pages are read from top to bottom and from left to right. Also, reading story books with images develops imagination and creativity skills in children. It also encourages critical thinking in children as they read about different situations and tend to think about potential solutions to certain issues in a story or text.
Emotional and Social Development
Listening and reading also help foster emotional intelligence in children. As they read or listen to stories that involve different kinds of emotions, they develop emotional intelligence. They start understanding things that they feel and learn that others may also feel the same way. For example, unless your child understands what anger looks or feels like, they won’t be able to identify their feeling of anger.
Apart from this, reading stories at an early age helps children learn how society works and what the norms of the world are. It helps them develop their social skills and prepares them for a better later life. This is the reason why top IB schools in Sarjapur Bangalore and other cities focus on early age language development.
Strengthening Parent-Child Bond
Reading with your children is not just beneficial for their language and comprehensive development, but it also strengthens your relationship with your child. Reading with the child is a proven way for parents to build stronger bonds with their kids. When the parent-child bond is strong, children are more likely to share their thoughts and feelings with their parents.
Final Take
Developing listening and reading skills at an early age offers numerous advantages to children. Along with building their language and comprehension skills, it also develops social and emotional intelligence in them. Not only parents, but the teachers of early-age children also need to focus on improving the listening and reading skills of children. OWIS Bangalore, which is one of the best international schools in Whitefield Bangalore, has become a top choice for parents as it puts special emphasis on developing the language skills of children from a young age.
