Why Read Aloud to Children

It’s fun for you and the children.
Reading aloud is a great way to turn children into readers who will enjoy books all their lives.
A shared activity like reading helps build a relationship between parents and children.
It opens the door to communication.
Children develop listening skills which are useful in many aspects of life.
It shows our children they are important to us.
They learn about the world, physical and the world of emotions and magic.
Children whose parents read aloud to them tend to be better readers and can often perform better in school.
Reading aloud to children expands their vocabulary.
They can develop interests when books on specific topics are read. Topics such as horses, football, trekking, art, dinosaurs ...
Children can learn positive (and how to avoid negative) attitudes and behaviour patterns through the story characters.
Reading stories aloud to children helps them develop their creativity and imagination.
It calms children before sleep. (Or, for older children and teenagers, reading aloud to them while they are doing their chores is a great idea.)
Children’s confidence can be boosted by the feeling of security when a parent reads to them.
Reading aloud can introduce types of books to children that they might not discover on their own.
They absorb the rhythms of language by hearing it.
Builds attention span.
Reading aloud to your children is a wonderful gift.

Reading Inspires Children: sweet advertisement about the Indigo Love of Reading Fund (goes for about a minute – worth watching).
Daniel Boone Regional Library: Choosing books and Reading Aloud to Children (length approx. 10 mins).
Baby is Reading (You’ll laugh and love this 15 seconds of video).
About.com: Making Reading to Young children Fun (short video).
About.com: Helping Young Children Make their own Storybook (video).
United through Reading tips.
Reading Is Fundamental: Tips for where, when and what to read.
Tips for Reading Aloud with babies.
Reading Aloud to Children 5-12 years old.
Reading Aloud to Pre-teens and Teens.
Mem Fox’s Read Aloud Ten Commandments.
Mem Fox on How to Make Reading Aloud Exciting.
Audrey of the Outback fun page, watch a short video (One and a half mins long) as I read from the book, and there's a link to a second short reading.
Encouraging Reading (my tips on how to encourage kids to also read books for themselves).
Supporting Your Children's Learning at Home (British School, Tokyo): Reading Together
Ideas for Reluctant Readers (British School, Tokyo).
Let's Read, a program that encourages parents to read aloud to children 0-5 years (Centre for Community Child Health & The Smith Family organisation).

In this section

My friends and I are really into our books.

Grandpa reading a story

'Read me the story again, Grandpa!'

Grandpa reading photo: Daniela Andreea Spyropoulos, BigStockPhoto