Reading to a young child is a wonderful way for parents, family members, and other caregivers to bond with them. For babies, this bonding is the most important immediate benefit. But being read to has longer-term consequences: the love and attention create positive associations with books in the youngster’s mind. Later, the child will likely be more motivated to continue the hard work of improving their reading skills. Moreover, when loved ones read to them, children gradually come to realize that the text is made of symbols that are associated with sounds and that those sounds are put together to make words and those words, in turn, refer to real-life things like the pictures in the books. So while a baby or toddler may only be pretending to read when they tell the story (or their own version of it) while someone flips through the pages with them, they’re actually working toward future literacy.
Children who aren’t exposed to books and frequently read to encounter problems later on, when they’re in school. In contrast, children whose parents read to them arrive at preschool or kindergarten armed with bigger vocabularies, exposure to literary ways of saying things, and higher levels of reading comprehension.
In the video we’ve posted below, you’ll see a baby who already has a love of books.
When his mom gets to the end of the book they’re reading, this little fellow is definitely not happy. His reaction is really funny, and cute, too. Little does he suspect that millions of books have been published and that when you finish one, you can move on to the next one! But for now, he may have devised a method for getting his mom to read to him some more!
How did you like this cranky little bookworm’s remarkable devotion to reading? Let us know in the comments at Facebook. Don’t forget to like and share!
https://youtu.be/AIEeakeXvMM
