We’ve all seen it in generic Hollywood family films. The classic night time scene, room window slightly ajar with the curtains swiftly floating in the light wind, there seated on an overfilled, puffy quilt is a mum reading before bed a children’s bedtime story to their sleepy child who falls asleep after a few short sentences.
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- Improves your child’s Literacy skills
- Fosters Creativity and Imagination
- Reading Before Bed and Forming Family Bonds
- Developing Routines and Schedules
- Relaxation and Wind Downs
- Learning more about your Child
- Minimises Stress Levels in Children
- Builds Discussions and Confidence
- Positive Impacts Towards Mental Health
What they fail to show is the reality of the child kicking off the blankets, rolling around and playing ‘peekaboo’ with the quilt while you try reading before bed.
Although it can be a bit hectic at times depending on the day your child has had, more often than not reading before bed does work a treat and can be something that children do look forward to every night. It may not be exactly like the Hollywood films, but there actually can be quite a few benefits reading before bed every night.
So I’ve compiled a list of 10 Benefits of Reading Before Bed – The importance of reading bedtime stories to your children,
Improves your child’s Literacy skills
There are all different types of ways to improve literacy skills for your child and one of the easiest ways is reading before bed. Reading before bed helps build connections and context in the text/book that is being read and helps improve a child’s speaking and listening skills which work together to improve children’s language ability.
By listening to words being read children learn to comprehend what is being said and make connections also between the images being shown in the story and the words being read out. It also helps to build confidence for children to sound out words they hear and use them in everyday conversations. Quite a lot of learning for a small bedtime story isn’t it?
Fosters Creativity and Imagination
No matter what the story is, reading before bed is a fantastic way to help children develop a great imagination and utilise their creativity. This is both through the images in the book that is being read and the context of the story being read out.
For older children who may be reading a story without images, it is a great way for them to literally imagine what the characters and scenes would look like in their heads. You can even go a step further and get your child to draw the scenes and characters as an activity during the day. They may even want to write about them or write an alternate ending to the story once you finish it. So much education to be had just from a book!
Reading Before Bed and Forming Family Bonds
One of my favourite elements of reading before bed is not just the educational value it helps engage in your children, but also the family time and bonding it creates between the reader and the child. It is a very special thing to read to someone and helps build stronger relationships.
Children tend to start looking forward to this time and especially when parents/guardians can be quite busy during the day, a scheduled bedtime story is a special way to spend time with your child one-on-one.
Developing Routines and Schedules
Most of the time, developing a schedule or routine is a good way to help children bring some structure day to day. This eventually leads to autonomy where sometimes they may even remind you that ‘Its time to brush our teeth! or Time to pack up the toys! at the end of the day.
Reading before bed is a great activity to add to that schedule and helps ease your child into understanding that it is time for bed, without the whinging, crying and reluctancy to go to sleep.
Relaxation and Wind Downs
Relaxing and winding down can be a difficult thing for a child to do. If only it was that easy to tell your child to ‘sit down and relax’ especially if they have been non stop all day, running up and down the house (where they get the energy I’ll never know!). A way to make it easier is reading before bed.
Lying down, getting nice and comfy in the bedcovers next to a parent where they feel safe and happy automatically helps your child wind down and relax which is a must to help your child’s brain get into the process of sleeping. Going to bed with a relaxed mind and body means better sleep which for children means better behaviour during the day.
Learning more about your Child
From a very early age, you can get a bit of an idea of what your child likes and dislikes. If more broccoli ends up on floor more than in their mouths then there’s a good chance your child dislikes broccoli (or any green vegetable for that matter!) Playing or talking constantly day in and day out about garbage trucks and bins, then I’m pretty sure they have shown a liking to bins and rubbish.
Reading before bed is a good way to learn about your child. This may be in the way they think (giving an opinion about a story that is being read), showing interest or lack of interest in a story that is being read (perhaps they love or hate a particular genre of books) or even just learning more about your child’s emotions based on how they react to particular sections or elements from a story.
Sometimes these quiet and safe environments reading before bed creates may also allow your child to open up about things they may fear, be worrying about or any troubles or issues they may be experiencing (wether it be at school or elsewhere).
Storylines can also help you learn more about your child’s feeling if they can associate what’s happening in the story to something that is happening to them also such as, if the story is has a large cave that is dark, your child may make you aware about their fear about the dark.
Minimises Stress Levels in Children
Reading in general has been shown to reduce stress. A 2009 study in the UK found that reading for 6 minutes can reduce stress levels by more than two-thirds, 68%. Although children have a lot of fun during the day playing, spending time outdoors, playing with other children or spending time with families, they can also endure anxiety and stresses as adults do.
Things like toilet training, starting school, going to the doctors can all cause children some form of stress, reading before bed can help elevate that stress which lowers muscle tension, reduce cortisol (hormones released in response to stress) and help improve sleep quality over all.
Builds Discussions and Confidence
The best part about reading stories are the discussions that can be had about the story itself. Reading before bed can help establish discussions either during the story or afterwards (the next day). It doesn’t just build stronger relationships with the parent/guardian but also helps build language skills, explanation and analysis skills as well as creative thinking and vocal skills.
Positive Impacts Towards Mental Health
Having a schedule to read before bed can bring about elements of positivity to children who would be looking forward to spending time with a parent and reading together. This positivity can lead to better impact towards a child’s mental health.
Mental health and wellbeing is extremely important for anyone, including young children. If reading before bed helps establish positivity and a lead towards good mental health and wellbeing, then a bedtime story is a great step in doing that.
Overall, reading before bed can be quite beneficial for children as well as their parents/guardians. It can help children wind down at the end of a big day and help establish good routines, better mental health and wellbeing and can be educational in relation to literacy, creativity and vocal abilities.
Pick a few good books, cuddle up and enjoy the times together with your child. These times go fast!
What is your bedtime routine? Are there particular stories that you and your child enjoy reading together? What benefits do you find from reading before bed? Let us know in the comments below!
Want to read more of our blogs? Check this one out – The Importance of Resilience for Kids – 10 Eye-Opening ways to Teach Resilience to your Children
