Reading aloud to your child is a gift that will last a lifetime. MAYA ANGELOU

For busy parents, finding time to read with a child might seem like just one more thing to add to an already packed schedule. However, one of the most important responsibilities of a parent is to help their children build strong minds and healthy bodies. This can seem like a daunting task, but there are many fun and practical ways to do it. One of the easiest and most important things you can do to help your child build a strong brain is to encourage them to play. Play is the foundation for early learning and it’s how children build strong brains and healthy bodies. Making shared reading a playful experience is the perfect way to fit it into your busy day.  

In this article, you will learn why it’s important to read with your child for 20 minutes every day. Plus, we’ll give you three actionable tips to make reading with your child a playful experience that doesn’t feel like an add-on.  

Why Reading With Your Child is So Important

Reading with your child opens doors to adventure and learning. It promotes strong family bonds and lays a foundation for success in school and in life. Research shows that daily reading in the preschool years has lasting effects, measurable in Grade 3 and beyond. 

Shared daily reading exposes children to language and art. It provides examples of how stories are put together and the natural rise and fall of sounds in spoken language. Studies show that adults use richer and more varied vocabulary and repetition of language during reading conversations. Shared reading exposes your child to thousands of words that are not typically used in everyday conversations. Through shared reading, children form positive associations to the experience which provides motivation for learning to read.

Shared reading has also been positively associated with growth in social and emotional skills and overall health. Through reading, children learn about other people. They learn how problems are solved and relationships are nurtured. With so many wonderful books available, children are able to see themselves in the characters and find positive role models. Books also let children explore experiences and places far beyond their home and community.

Shared reading also improves listening skills, enhances critical thinking, and increases comprehension. To make sense of a story line, your child has to hold information in memory, create pictures in their mind, and manipulate thoughts and ideas. They learn to understand and evaluate the actions of characters which helps them reflect on their own actions and behaviors. When children are exposed to complex vocabulary, characters, and themes, they gain the language and understanding to comprehend more complicated ideas and express their own views and opinions. 

Roadblocks to Reading Aloud

In cultures around the world books are often associated with school and academic success. This can be a motivator for engaging in reading with your child, but for some parents it creates road blocks to reading. Thinking about books can bring back memories of challenges in learning to read or of reading long, boring books to learn material for tests or write book reports. These feelings are real and can hold parents back from creating shared reading experiences. 

Some parents are also deterred from reading because they think their child does not enjoy the experience. Younger children often push books away or turn pages in random sequence from front to back and back to front. They might appear to be distracted or quickly lose interest in a book and switch to a different book. These are all ways of actively engaging with and exploring books and should not be viewed as negative reactions to books.

Developing a new mindset about what reading books can look like is a great way to overcome roadblocks to reading. Don’t get hung up on the “right way” to read a book. There is no “one right way.” 

We typically read books from beginning to end, but it’s okay to skip around, read small sections, and abandon books that don’t speak to you or your child. When you are establishing a reading habit, start early and keep the sessions short. Knowing how valuable it is to read with your child is a motivator for finding ways to work together to create positive memories around books and reading.  

Although books and learning to read are predictors of academic and life success, they are also so much more. Books are windows to the world, a source of inspiration and imagination, and a means for communicating thoughts and ideas. Books teach us about ourselves and others. They help us sort through daily life and regulate social relationships and complex emotional states. They provide exposure to vocabulary, experiences, and information far beyond what a child knows in everyday life. Social and emotional regulation and building strong family bonds make daily shared reading a recipe for overall health and well being.             

How to Make Shared Reading Playful and Fun 

It’s never too late to form a daily reading habit. Just make it a natural part of everyday life. Waking up or going to bed are great times to read with your child, but you can also read while they’re playing in the bathtub, waiting for an appointment, building blocks, doing a craft, having a snack, playing at the beach, or when traveling. Keep books handy in multiple places around the house, in the vehicle, and a travel bag so you can easily fill a quiet moment with a book.   

Create a Joyful Reading Experience

Reading should be a fun and positive experience for you and your child. Here are some tips for making shared reading a joyful experience.

• Start early, read a variety of books, and work with your child to choose books that align with their current interests. 
• Find a cozy place to snuggle while you read together.
• Include other family members and friends in the shared reading experience. 
• Reread favorite books and talk about the characters and themes. 
• Share stories from your own life that connect to the book or remind your child of experiences they have had similar to characters in the book
• Create a new perspective for what reading looks like. It’s okay to flip back and forth in a book, read a few pages or small sections of a book, or abandon a book that just isn’t speaking to you. It’s okay to read the same book over and over again, if that’s what currently engages your child. 
• Add joke books and humorous stories to your reading time. Laughing together increases the enjoyment and bonding around books.
• Be expressive. Use voices that vary in pitch and tone and make up silly endings for stories. Play with words by making up rhymes and talking about how words can have several different meanings.

Playful Learning with Toys and Books

Children learn through play which is why toys are so important in their lives. Toys help them experiment, role play, and learn about the world. They provide a means for physical development of gross and fine motor skills. Toys help your child develop a strong imagination and practice problem solving. 

Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood. FRED ROGERS

Adults often separate books and toys, but it’s actually better to keep books among the toys. This makes them easily accessible and gives them value similar to other toys. You can keep special books that won’t survive the daily play in another place, but be sure to have lots of books among the toys. Don’t worry if they get worn and torn. Just give your child a gentle reminder about how to care for books and tape them back together.  

Another way to be playful with books is to combine reading with playing with toys. If your child wants to play with toys while you read, that’s perfectly fine. You can sit near them and call their attention to parts of the story by occasionally asking questions or pointing to illustrations. You can also combine toys and reading by asking them to bring you toys that match the illustrations. For example, if the story is about animals, vehicles, letters, or colors, your child can find a toy that matches the object, beginning letter sound, or color in the book. Keep this activity short, playful, and fun and soon your child will be matching toys to books and pretending to read all on their own.        

Combining Books with Experiences

Choose books that match your child’s interests, plus a few that expose them to new  ideas and experiences. Some fun ways to match books to interests is to choose books with themes that relate to current life experiences such as potty training, losing a tooth, new siblings, going on vacation, starting kindergarten, or visiting an aquarium or dinosaur museum. 

Open your child’s world to new ideas and interests by exploring your local library and helping your child choose a couple books from sections they might not have visited before. You can also choose books that relate to interests you had as a child, sparking wonderful stories and conversations.  

Shared reading is not just about books. It can include environmental print, directions for games, instructions for building and crafting, magazines, audio books, poems, and songs. All of these activities can be valuable reading experiences for your child, as it makes reading pleasurable and helps them see the value of learning to read.   

Another fun way to connect books to experiences is to print a few photos from a recent experience such as building a snowman or going to a pumpkin patch. Glue each photo to a page and help your child write their own story to share with family and enjoy over and over again. 

Summary

Reading with your child is a valuable experience that builds strong family bonds, early literacy skills, and a foundation for future learning. Books expose your child to complex vocabulary and provide examples of how stories are formed. Through shared reading, children form positive associations to the experience which creates strong family bonds and provides motivation for learning to read. Books are an open door to adventure and learning. It’s never too late to begin the daily habit of reading together. Through shared reading, you will be creating memories, nurturing a healthy mind and body, and building a strong literacy foundation that will last for a lifetime. 

Sources

Brown, M. I., Wang, C., & McLeod, S. (2022). Reading with 1–2 year olds impacts academic achievement at 8–11 years. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Volume 58. Pages 198-207. ISSN 0885-2006. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2021.09.008. 

Hoppe, K. (2022). Teacher read-alouds: more than just story time. Kansas English, 103. https://doi.org/10.62704/1g54e810 

Klass, P. E., Needlman, R., & Zuckerman, B. (2003). The developing brain and early learning. Archives of disease in childhood, 88(8), 651-654. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1719605/pdf/v088p00651.pdf 

McLeod, S. (2024, June). Children's communication and the developing mind: A challenge for Australia. In Journal and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales (Vol. 157, No. 493-494, pp. 43-48). Sydney: Royal Society of New South Wales. https://www.royalsoc.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/157-1-11McLeod.pdf 

Preece, J., & Levy, R. (2020). Understanding the barriers and motivations to shared reading with young children: The role of enjoyment and feedback. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 20(4), 631-654. Link