We all want our children to grow into mature, compassionate, and productive adults. We also want them to have positive relationships, beginning with their relationship with us. We want them to have the wisdom and knowledge to not only live better lives than we have lived but to create an even better world than the world in which we now live. Reading with your child is a great way to begin to accomplish all these things!

Let me state the obvious: learning to read will benefit children throughout their lifetime. On the simplest level, reading helps children navigate the world of signs and labels that identify where we are, where we are going, and what we are buying. Reading will also increase their vocabulary and their ability to communicate. It will introduce them to new worlds in which they can learn compassion, perspective-taking, and ways in which ideas and motives drive our actions. Reading will increase their ability to solve problems.

Even more, reading is fun. It’s an enjoyable way to relax, to momentarily escape the everyday stresses of life and enjoy an adventure without even leaving their room.

As parents, we can nurture our children’s love of reading by reading with them. In fact, the 28-year Fullerton Longitudinal Study revealed that reading with toddlers predicted reading achievement and motivation to read into adolescence, which predicted higher levels of academic achievement.

A review of 46 studies reached the conclusion that reading with a child during their first five years of life boosted language, literacy, reading enjoyment, and motivation to read. It also increased the parent-child bond, lowered parental stress, and improved the child’s sustained attention. These benefits will not only translate into higher academic achievement but a greater ability to empathize with others, a deeper sense of compassion for others, a more nuanced ability to problem solve…all of which translates into an overall higher sense of well-being.

As you can see, reading with our children offers tremendous benefits to them and to us, including the strengthening of our bond with our children. And, if we consider the rippling effects of these benefits, it might just play a role in changing the world in which we live for the better.