The Importance of Reading for Early Childhood Development

Find out how and why Little Story Shapers evolved into a storytelling and drama class in order to nurture a love of reading and books. Read on to find out practical tips for reading to your little one and starting their reading journey today.  

Reading is something that I have always enjoyed as an adult. It’s something I enjoyed as a child, and it’s something that I now love doing with my children. This passion has gone on to inspire my business and underpins everything we do at Little Story Shapers. There really is nothing better than story time with your child.  

In the Beginning

When I very first set up my business, it was originally called Jigsaw Drama. My vision was that it would be a stage school and we would put on plays and performances. The idea behind ‘jigsaw’ was that everyone is required to work together to put on a performance from the back stage runner to the leading lady, everyone is a vital piece in the jigsaw and has an important part to play.  

Then back in 2018 my eldest daughter was born and I wanted to find a way to make drama accessible for under fives. I wanted to create drama classes but I needed a hook. This is when I then had the idea that instead of a show we could join together to perform a story.  

The ethos of ‘joining together’ and ‘each child having a part to play’ is still an intrinsic part of our classes and in a similar way to putting on a play in a theatre we make the book come to life in the room for our little ones so they can be experiencing the story with all their senses. 

Over time I went on to read hundreds of storybooks picking out the best ones we could use in class. Any new storybook I read to my girls I then started dreaming up activities which would give the story that extra dimension.  

The Importance of Reading 

By giving stories an extra dimension, making the words jump out of the page, exploring it with all our senses and allowing our little ones to physically act out the story or have the world created around them, we nurture a love of books.  

A love books is so crucial because this is the first step to them learning to read themselves. If our little one’s love books, they’ll want to learn to read, they’ll have that desire, and passion for reading. If you’ve got a child that isn’t interested in books and reading, they’re less likely to want to pick up a book and start to learn to read themselves. So you’ve got a challenge from the beginning. Whereas if they love books, they’re going to be curious as to what the words say. From a very young age, children can learn stories off by heart without actually reading but they get the sense that they’re reading and so there’s that amazing feeling of achievement. We can then build on that with their phonological awareness, which we explore in our older classes, and start introducing those letters and early reading skills. 

The Benefits of Reading  

With a background in primary school teaching, I’ve seen first-hand the impact that reading and talking to your child has one your child. When they first start school, it is very noticeable because the children who have been read to have been exposed to so much more vocabulary and have a deeper understanding of language.  

The more words that children know, the easier they are going to be able to communicate their wants, needs, desires, knowledge and their ideas. Strong language skills under pin so many elements of learning. It also helps regulate their emotions, because they’ve got those skills to be able to talk about how they’re feeling. Social skills are improved as they can communicate with their peers and make friends as well as improving their critical thinking skills and enhancing their creativity.  

Reading really opens up the rest of the curriculum. 

When our children can read, they can then access the whole curriculum. You may think well how does reading link to Maths? Because when it gets to the stage where they have got to read worded maths questions they need that understanding to read the question first. If they can’t read the question and if they haven’t got that understanding of what the words mean, then they can’t do the actual maths sum. The same applies for subjects like History and Geography. Research becomes a big part of these subjects where they need to be able to read information, find out knowledge to enhance their understanding of the subject. Even subject like Cookery require children to read recipes.  

So reading really does open up the whole curriculum, and therefore if we are exposing our little ones from a young age, we are going to allow them to succeed and propel their learning forward. 

Lets get started TODAY: 

Check out these top tips for how to read to your newborn so you can start reading straight away:  

1. Act out parts of the story to allow the words to come alive and jump out of the page. 

2. Read books that appeal to your child’s interests or a milestone they are working on to help make it relatable. 

3. Use books with flaps, feely sections, buttons or interactive elements to make books more engaging. 

4. Use funny voices to give your little one a chuckle! 

5. Make up stories so that you are in charge of the content and can tailor it to your child. 


 

You can access the full guide which explains each of these tips in more detail and gives you book recommendations and extra advice.  

Simply click the link to access your FREE GUIDE – 5 Top Tips for Engaging your Little One in Books