Reading activities

Reading to children is not only fun to do, but it also encourages them to want to read as well. Reading is good for a child’s development as it stimulates their imagination, speech and language development. If you are reading to smaller children, try to give the characters in the story a voice and encourage the children to get involved by helping you to voice out sounds (e.g. quack quack!). On the other hand, if you are babysitting an older child, why not let them read to you? In this way, you can share a nice moment, be entertained and learn together all at once!

The main advantages of reading:

• It expands the child’s vocabulary, as you are helping the child to learn and pronounce new words
• It contributes to the child’s language development
• It stimulates the child’s imagination
• It motivates the child to learn to read/read for themselves
• It stimulates the child to practice listening and focusing

Research shows that children that are read to from an early age perform better in school as they tend to understand texts better and are often more motivated to read from earlier on. Reading to small children can also help to develop their linguistic skills so that they develop the vocabulary necessary to describe things better.

Why not bring the children to the local library? There, they can pick out the books that they like so that they are even more engaged and attentive when you read to them. Libraries are also usually free to anyone under 18 years old. Many public libraries also have a weekly reading hour for children, which you can both attend. You might even pick up some tips on how to read out loud to children better!