Telling and Reading Aloud – How Stories Support and Enrich Children

Telling and reading stories is not only great fun, it also supports children on many different levels. That’s why you can’t start telling and reading stories early enough. A good time to start is around 12 months. As soon as children begin to speak their first words, they start to explore “language.” This development is further strengthened by reading aloud. Children who are read to have a larger vocabulary. This enables them to handle more complex sentence structures. Through telling and reading stories, parents can gradually introduce their children to the medium of “text.” This creates a good foundation for later on.

Telling and Reading Aloud Has Only Benefits

• As mentioned at the beginning, vocabulary expands enormously with the start of reading aloud. Also, language skills are strengthened. This way, parents promote their child’s language development and simultaneously open up new worlds of topics for them to discover.
• Telling and reading aloud makes children smarter: Through the new worlds that open up to children when being read to, they learn many things. That’s why asking questions during reading aloud is so important. It helps little ones to understand connections and apply them to everyday situations.
• Strengthening empathy: Through stories, children learn to put themselves in different roles and other people’s shoes. On one hand, this builds conflict resolution skills, and on the other, it trains children in interacting with other children and adults.
• Reading aloud promotes concentration: By listening carefully and remembering details, children strengthen their ability to concentrate. And not only that: abstract thinking is also encouraged. Children learn to place events on a timeline. This makes learning for school or university much easier later on.
• By discovering new worlds and imagining the stories in their minds, fantasy and imagination are stimulated.
• And the best part is: children who were read to a lot early on often keep their love of reading for life. And reading is the path to knowledge and education.

Reading Aloud Is Simply Wonderful!

Besides all the promotion of skills and strengthening of important qualities, reading aloud is, of course, about the children themselves. They enjoy the quiet moments with mom, dad, or grandparents. Nowadays, everyday life is often very exhausting even for the little ones. The demands on them and the experiences they have can overwhelm children at times. This often leads to hyperactivity from which they cannot calm down on their own. Children need the help of adults here. Reading aloud is a wonderful approach for this. The little ones can calm down and relax more easily. Telling and reading aloud is also perfect as an evening ritual to wind down and thus fall asleep better.

Creating the Right Conditions for Wonderful Reading Moments

 Telling and reading aloud works best in a cozy and quiet atmosphere. A reading corner or a retreat in the children’s room with suitable furniture is a good idea. The 2 in 1 children’s armchair + children’s lounger from howa, for example, is perfect for a cozy little reading area. For reading aloud, parents should create a relaxed atmosphere. It is also important to let the children choose the book or story. The little ones usually know best how to relax and unwind – some children, for example, like to hear the same story over and over again. To allow the little listeners to fully engage with the story, parents should also allow questions and interruptions while reading aloud. Sometimes children need to reflect on connections again. Or the beautiful illustration in the book catches their attention for a moment. Your child sets the pace here.

Become a Storytelling Pro!

 To make it even more exciting, parents or grandparents can personalize the story while reading aloud. For example, you can swap names or include everyday situations experienced by the child. Telling and reading aloud becomes especially fun and thrilling when parents change their voice, imitate sounds, or speak loudly and softly at times. This way, children can dive even deeper into the story.