Early reading habit is essential for your child 

The importance of reading cannot be over- emphasized, says parenting enthusiast and founder of Inspired Kids Network, an online children’s book- store, Oluwabusayo Adebowale. No matter how young a child is, reading will help develop their imagination, fuel their dreams and strengthen their reasoning.

“When the imagination is well developed from childhood, inspiration and innovation will easily flow, and the child will grow to become an out-of- the-box thinker. Also, children are known to have a very short attention span, but reading helps enhance their concentration level.

“It as well assists in vocabulary and language development, as they always come in contact with new words, phrases and sentences. The more they interact with these words, the better they become at speaking, and even writing.”

Adebowale stressed that traveling physically to a place is not the only type of traveling, as people can travel by books. When children read books, they are exposed to diverse cultures, history, ideologies, knowledge and so on. They are able to appreciate the world around them and understand diversity.

The mum of one and freelance writer noted that it is, indeed, important to raise vast children and reading will enable this process. It also doesn’t stop there, the more children read, the more curious and thirsty for knowledge they become.

Moreso, reading helps groom up leadership qualities in them, as it’s often said, “readers are leaders.” Reading places children ahead of their peers, it makes them wiser and distinguishes them in all ramifications. The benefits of reading are just too numerous to count!

On what age is best to introduce books to children, Adebowale said that books should be introduced to children from birth. “You can start by reading aloud to your baby. Reading to babies is a great way to immerse them in sounds and rhythm of speech, which will in turn help their language development and cognitive abilities. Reading is a good habit to develop in your child very early.”

She noted that reading could prove to be a fun and bonding experience for both parents and their children. As the reality is, there are very few parents who are actually present in their children’s lives. Many are busy working to make ends meet and running crazy work schedules. It’s easy to just give children more screen time but it doesn’t pay at all.

Deliberately reading to children or with them allows for parents to relax and actually engage with their children and this fosters a good relationship between both parties. It also presents a good opportunity to be involved in the children’s lives actively. The memories of bedtime stories or lap reading sessions and the bond shared in those experiences will always be treasured by both parents and children.

On what lessons and habits children can learn from reading, the Bachelor’s degree holder in Mass Communication said the first thing is that reading leaves children with a long-term thirst for knowledge. It makes them curious about life and positions them for actual learning.

There are always take-home lessons children can draw out from books. They can learn life lessons and true leadership qualities, children can learn about morals. Through books, values like sharing, respect, honesty, diligence, patience, contentment, gratitude, loyalty, patriotism can be easily be imbibed.

Children can through books learn to love and accept others who are much different from them. They can also learn basic sex education and how to protect themselves from sexual abuse, as this seems to be an area of concern presently. There are brightly illustrated and easy-to-understand children’s books that deal with the subject matter perfectly.

Children can pick on identity lessons from books, it improves their self-confidence and can give them an I-can-do it spirit. They can learn about history, reasoning, science, cultures and peoples. There are too many things children can learn from reading.