Reading Bedtime Stories To Children Provides ‘Meaningful And Measurable’ Jump Start To Their Development

For centuries, children and parents have shared the nightly routine of bonding over a bedtime story, spending precious time together and traversing imaginary worlds that beg to be explored. It was always thought that bedtime stories provided benefits to the children that fell asleep while a parent read to him or her. However, a new study reveals that bedtime stories do provide a “meaningful and measurable” jump start to a child’s development and provide am much needed boost to the brain’s growth and maturity. Until now, it was not proven that bedtimes stories and other reading opportunities had any real benefit to a child’s development. However, the new findings are coercing researchers to encourage parents to continue reading to children.

According to an article on the Daily Mail, reading to a child allows connections within the brain to develop and allow the promotion of language development as well as the manifestation of imagination and creative thought. Dr. Hutton shared that young children benefit greatly from visual imagery, which allows the child to see the story and look past the pictures, leading to the use of imagination to fill in the blanks.

“Of particular importance are brain areas supporting mental imagery, helping the child ‘see the story’ beyond the pictures, affirming the invaluable role of imagination.”

Over the course of the study, 19 children all considered to be healthy were monitored, of which 37 percent were considered to be low income. Parents were asked about the time spent reading stories to their kids and the children underwent MRI scans to measure their brain activity while they listened to children’s stories via headphones. According to her findings, the children that were regularly read to at home showed more brain activity than those that were not regularly read to.

According to the Independent, Britain is facing a reading crisis, as parents are foregoing reading to their kids altogether. In Ireland alone, one in ten children that move on from primary school tend to have some sort of literacy difficulty. Fiona Nic Fhionnlaoich shared that reading is the last thing on her mind after a long day at work.

“It’s not easy, especially after a long busy day when the energy levels are low.”

The study showed that all children can benefit from being read bedtime stories, but many low income families tend to lack in that area. The study does not reveal what parents can do to combat the lack of books in a low income home. However, simply telling a story off the top of one’s head and coercing the child to become involved in the development of the story will aid in the development in imagination as well.

[Photo Courtesy Adam Berry/Getty Images]