6 Practical Benefits Of Reading Bedtime Stories To Kids

Reading bedtime stories to your little ones helps them connect with you more than ever. It’s like those age-old traditions between parents & their children that you must follow. But in today’s world, it’s much more than that. The routine of reading bedtime stories helps lift a child’s creative spirit, imagination, & promotes cognitive development. It’s an opportunity to spend a bit of quality time with your child. 

There are a lot of technology gadgets available to divide your child’s attention. Although, you must help your child build the habit of reading in your presence. This will expose them to different emotions, moral values, and a high attention span. 

Besides as per research, 70% of parents consider bedtime reading as a crucial part of their child’s routine. Whatever age group they belong to, sharing a story with them will add to their brain development. We at Tickle Right believe triggering a child’s brain potential with stimulating reading is very helpful. It helps them gain a fascinating insight. 

 

When To Start Reading Bedtime Stories To Kids? 

You can read bedtime stories to your little one as early as a child present in the mother’s womb. However, most parents do it at around 4-5 months of their child’s age. Since as per the doctor’s recommendations, you can start reading with your little one quite early. This will help them develop imagination & shall spark ideation to them. You must set a definite time at night between 7:00 to 9:00 pm before their bedtime. Since these times are considered the best, it will help them stay calm during the night. You must continue till this becomes part of their bedtime routine.

What Are The Benefits Of Reading Bedtime Stories To Your Kids?

Reading bedtime stories to your kids is the perfect opportunity to enhance your child’s learning abilities. This acts as a doorway to numerous other benefits contributing to their brain development. From diverse vocabulary to excellent language skills, here are the top 6 benefits of reading bedtime stories. 

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1. Contributes To Cognitive Development

Children need to process information by listening to stories that they hear. This practice of absorbing information begins even before they begin to speak. The habit of reading bedtime stories has a direct impact on a child’s brain development in other ways too. Like, it boosts their memory & helps build a long attention span. As your little child will grow up, they’ll get familiar with the new words. Stories help a child develop a love for learning & provides the correct knowledge to explore new things. It boasts a child’s brain development by encouraging fruitful conversations.

 

2. Language & Communication Skills

Kids often have the tendency to imitate their parent’s actions & words. Your little one learns to respond to your words & phrases. If you keep on repeating several words in a story, they get a hang of it. Your child will begin to use those words in their daily life. This also has a strong impact on your child’s speaking skills, listening skills, & linguistic recognition skills. You must build conversations around stories with your kid. Putting up questions related to it, or focusing on a character’s traits will expose them to new words & emotions. This will also help them adapt to their common language in no time. 

 

3. Build A Child’s Vocabulary

Regular reading is a great way to boost your child’s vocabulary. And this applies to both children & adults! You must help your child develop the habit of reading at an early age. Stories expose children to new sets of words every day. It covers various topics & helps children understand the context of different areas. Like, grammar, affirmations, actions, & emotions. This lays the foundation for an effective language approach. There’s a huge difference in the scope of vocabulary for a child who is read & who is not. A 5-year-old child is able to comprehend 24,000 words by this time because of regular listening to stories. 

 

4. Social & Emotional Development

A regular day hassle can impact a child’s well-being too. Yes, it’s not any different for young children. A child’s healthy social & emotional development helps to understand, express, & manage emotions in the early years. Exposing your little one to bedtime stories will familiarize them with different emotions & situations. You can leverage this situation to teach your child moral values & problem-solving skills. Stories are the means to introduce inspirational characters & gain emotional intelligence from the core message. This also helps develop an emotional vocabulary which helps them talk about their feelings.

 

5. Help Build A Healthy Routine 

Reading your child’s bedtime stories helps develop a love for learning. Not only that, but it helps your child get into a routine for reading. It is important for children to understand the importance of following daily routines. This helps drive stability even for adults. This will also improve their personality & knowledge. Reading bedtime stories at a certain time every day contributes to building a healthy routine and shows children the importance of time. Growing up, these routines will surely change and develop as per their age. 

 

6. Stories Sparks Imagination

Books are a great way to lift up your child’s imagination & willpower. It opens door to a lot of possibilities in their minds. Fairies, monsters, wizards, & what not? Since a  regular story incorporates several characters. All of these leave a significant impact on your child’s mind. Children have the ability to connect with these stories and become curious. When we read to them it clicks their imagination and they become inquisitive & curious. Asking questions is a very healthy habit as it gives way to more knowledge and understanding in the long run. This also gives parents an idea of how their child’s mind works.

 

10 Bedtime Stories That You Must Read To Your Baby 

Here are the Top 5 bedtime stories that you must read to your baby –

1. The Ugly Duckling
2. The Boy Who Cried, Wolf 
3. The Ant & The Grasshopper
4. Goodnight Moon
5. The Going To Bed Book
6. Beauty & The Beast
7. Good Night, Gorilla
8. Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site
9. The Very Hungry Caterpillar
10. Jack & The Beanstalk

 

FAQs

 

1. How long should bedtime stories be? 

A bedtime story should last between 8 and 10 minutes. It is a fairly good length for reading any bedtime story to your child. Few of the children also benefit from shorter stories. These stories take around 5 minutes to complete. It can also extend to 15 minutes. The goal of this is to also avoid any unrequired distractions at night before sleep. Like watching TV, or using a phone. 

 

2. Do bedtime stories help children sleep better? 

Reading stories acts as a medium to avoid distractions during bedtime. It fosters the bond between the parents & children allowing them to settle down for sleep. It also helps a child’s brain explore mental imagery away from daily hassle & activities. 

 

3. At what age should kids stop bedtime stories? 

On average, a child’s parents stop reading stories to them by 8 years. While 10% of them still continue this habit till 13 years of a child’s age or above. The 11% category stops till the kid is only three or four years. Whereas, 20% begin reading to their babies even before their birth. This is when they are present in their mother’s womb.

 

Takeaway

The habit of reading bedtime stories to your little one helps channel their divided attention. It is a means to set a healthy routine of reading from an early age. Such routines help a lot when your little one grows up. This gives them an intrinsic push to build a love for learning. Other benefits like diverse vocabulary, social & emotional development, and linguistic skills develop along the way. This lays the foundation for effective skill-building including processing the information duly.