Hello, young friends and their doting parents! 

Hope you all are doing well and enjoying the summer holidays. A couple of weeks ago, I had suggested activities you can engage in during your summer holidays. Among these, I had suggested reading too. And that's because inculcating the habit of reading right since childhood is very important. Sadly, with the advent of technology, young people are getting more drawn to gadgets and hardly show interest in reading books. But please remember that reading is extremely important if one wants to write and speak a language well, be it English, Hindi, or one's mother tongue. Parents, too, should take note of the importance of reading to children or inculcating the habit of reading in children. 

Let's learn about the benefits of reading independently and reading out to children. Apart from relaxation, reading provides cognitive and emotional benefits. Regular reading can also increase attention span, enhance vocabulary and aid in the development of socio-emotional skills. Parents and caregivers can inculcate the habit of reading in children by reading aloud to children. According to a research done by the University of Michigan, the benefits of reading to children translate into five essential skills which are vital in allowing a child to become a confident, independent reader:

1. Phonemic awareness — the ability to hear, identify, and play with individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words

2. Phonics — the ability to connect the letters of written language with the sounds of spoken language

3. Vocabulary — words kids need to know to communicate effectively

4. Reading comprehension — the ability to understand and derive meaning from what has been read

5. Fluency — ability to read text accurately and quickly

Reading out to children, right from infancy to adolescence, has many benefits. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, even before infants can talk, they can benefit from being read to daily. By introducing babies to picture books or stories with rhyming text, parents can help build knowledge of language patterns. By learning to associate reading with enjoyment in the early years, children associate reading with something humans do for enjoyment and to experience new things. This will motivate them to listen to stories and, eventually, to read independently. 

As children move towards the preschool years, reading benefits them in many ways. Reading supports cognitive development, helps in problem-solving, and can promote parent-child bonding. Moreover, regular reading sessions introduce children to the language of books, which often differs from what they hear in everyday conversations. This helps children build their vocabulary and gain an understanding of the concepts of text structure and sequence while reading.

There are numerous benefits of continuing to read to children during their school years. Not only does reading have the ability to reduce stress, but reading aloud also introduces children to unfamiliar words/concepts. Children also benefit from dialogic reading in which the parent/teacher/adult reading out to them asks questions to discuss about the text, invites the child to read along with him/her, or uses reading as a way to introduce a new subject. This allows parents and children to discuss what they read together. 

Even adolescents can benefit from reading together with parents/caregivers at home. By not only reading to children but also reading around children, parents can communicate that reading is a tool for relaxation and learning. Parents who are not readers can help children inculcate the habit of reading by listening to audiobooks on car rides or organising trips to the public library. Reading also helps build a sense of empathy and allows young people, who may be facing stressful situations, to find out how others have handled similar struggles in their lives. Reading can help teenagers cope with the challenges of a new stage of life.

The various benefits of reading to children show why it is important for parents and caregivers to read to children and the necessity of inculcating the habit of reading in children. Initiatives like better and more flexible access to public and school libraries, literacy information at schools, and distribution of free books from community reading programmes can ensure that children can access the benefits of reading and being read to.

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So, here's hoping that all of you, parents and children, pick a book right away!