Why are reading skills important

Importance of Reading Skills & Benefits

Book coaches one’s imagination to think big. A constant fuel is required by our mind to develop knowledge and enrich our perspective, here the importance of reading comes into play. Reading is not just a leisure activity but can also be beneficial when it comes to clearing some of the globally recognized competitive examinations. Developing a reading habit can help you go a long way both personally as well as in acing many examinations. Let us explore the importance and benefits of reading a little further in this blog.

Also, Read the Difference Between Author and a Writer!

This Blog Includes:

Concept of Reading
Why Reading is Important?
Importance of Reading in Polishing your Mind
Importance of Reading in Strengthening your Writing Ability
Importance of Reading in Lowering Stress
Importance of Reading in Reducing Depression
Importance of Reading in Increasing your Vocabulary
Importance of Reading in Enhancing One’s Imagination
Importance of Reading in Providing Entertainment and Peace of Mind
Importance of Reading in Promoting Positive Sleeping
Importance of Reading: When Preparing for Universal Competitive Exams
Benefits of Reading
Importance of Reading Essay
Importance of Reading Books
Importance of Reading Quotes
The Power and Importance of Reading for Students

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Concept of Reading

Reading is not just about picking an article and going through it. It is a cognitive, multifaceted process wherein you recognise the word and comprehend it to understand its meaning.

Our brain needs to be stimulated to function properly and foster ideas. One of the easiest ways to sharpen your mind is through reading with concentration. Almost all notable personalities read every day as they recognise that knowledge is the key to success. Therefore, it is time to mark their advice if you desire to be closer to your dream.

Must Read: Agatha Christie, the Queen of Crime Thrillers

Why Reading is Important?

While going through an article, you might have come across some words which confuse you or certain words that you hardly even recognise. Finding out their meaning and regularly reading can be the best solution for you to enhance your vocabulary and expand your knowledge.

Also Read: 50 Difficult Words with Meanings for GMAT and GRE Preparation

Importance of Reading in Polishing your Mind

Reading requires you to have the patience to build a cognitive perspective. This is considered to be a prime brain-stimulating activity to sharpen your mind. Individuals engaged in reading have a slower memory decline than those who avoid reading. It also improves memory and builds focus.

Importance of Reading in Strengthening your Writing Ability

Having a strong vocabulary can readily benefit you to strengthen your writing ability both personally and professionally. It inspires writers to stay positive and express their thoughts more clearly. Reading helps us in developing a knack for understanding the perspective of different authors that helps in writing about things by yourself. It is very crucial to comprehend the subject matter and allow our memory to retain it.

Importance of Reading in Lowering Stress

Reading leads you on a journey to another world. People reading literature or novels require a lot of concentration which allows them to stay away from the distraction in their lives which in turn promotes inner calmness and enhances overall health.

Importance of Reading in Reducing Depression

Reading is an essential aspect of learning and has multiple benefits attached to the exercise. Reading is important because it makes you more empathetic, and knowledgeable and stimulates your imagination. A study conducted by the University of Sussex showed that reading reduces stress by 68%. It helps in reducing tension and relaxing muscles which in turn helps people sleep better and stay healthy.

Importance of Reading in Increasing your Vocabulary

Medicinal therapies to combat depression can be reduced by incorporating reading habits. This is exactly what self-help books, novels, blogs, articles and non-fiction books contribute. Reading is found to lower heart rate, reduce stress and decrease blood pressure.

Importance of Reading in Enhancing One’s Imagination

Reading is just like a spider web, linking things you know to things you just learn and creating innovative solutions. You work upon your dreams when you start imagining them. Imagination also allows an individual to be empathetic towards people and their struggles.

Importance of Reading in Providing Entertainment and Peace of Mind

Reading is one of the simplest entertainment entities for humans. Human beings tend to be fascinated by the world of stories and books open up alternate worlds to explore. This not just transcends us to another reality but also helps us in distancing from our daily problems for a while.

Importance of Reading in Promoting Positive Sleeping

Books are a perfect company at night before you doze off because it allows your body muscles to relax and your mind to destress. It is known that one can have a sound sleep when one’s brain is happy and one is comfortable in their own space. However, it is preferable to grab a printed book than any gadget before you settle in for some dreams.

Importance of Reading: When Preparing for Universal Competitive Exams

The Reading Comprehension (RC) section in GMAT includes 350-word passages which can be easily mastered by practising active reading and by interacting with the text. Some examples can be reading The Economist, The New York Times, Scientific American, The Washington Post and Businessweek for acing the RC section.
Reading allows one to develop a better understanding of the subject and gain conceptual clarity when preparing for CAT and especially the Reading Comprehension.
A common success thread in all the students who secure well on the verbal section of the GRE is skilled reading ability. The faster you can scan through the passage while still holding on to the information, the more time you’ll have to answer the question.
The perfect strategy to cover a long passage in the allotted time in IELTS is through increasing your vocabulary by continuous reading.
To get a high score on the reading section of the TOEFL test, the only key is to read and understand various books and articles.

Also, Read English for Competitive Exams – All You Need to Know!

Benefits of Reading

Here are some benefits of reading that everyone should take advantage of to make their lives better:

It improves your language skills
It improves comprehension
It makes you more empathetic
It challenges stereotypes and social mores in society
It reduces stress and anxiety
It helps in building a vocabulary
It stimulates imagination
It builds confidence
It lowers the heart rate and relaxes muscles
It prevents cognitive decline in older people
It improves your sleeping habits

Here is a list of readings items that are a part of the benefits of reading. These are great for budding readers to kickstart their journey:

Newspapers
Magazines
Comics
Encyclopedias
Children’s novels
Fiction books
Non-fiction books
Manga

Importance of Reading Essay

Reading is a good habit that everyone needs to develop especially students. Reading requires you to have the patience to build a cognitive perspective and brain-stimulating activity to sharpen your mind. Reading is important because it makes you more empathetic, and knowledgeable and stimulates your imagination. Reading allows one to develop a better understanding of the subject and gain conceptual clarity. It is one of the simplest entertainment entities for humans. it also helps to battle depression and can be reduced by incorporating reading habits. This is exactly what self-help books, novels, blogs, articles and non-fiction books contribute.

Importance of Reading Books

There are multiple benefits of reading books. From building your vocabulary to reducing stress and depression. Here are some of the importance of reading books:

Importance of Reading Quotes

A book is a gift you can open again and again. —Garrison Keillor

Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. —Kofi Annan

Once you learn to read, you will be forever free. —Frederick Douglass

Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his needs, is good for him. —Maya Angelou

There is no such thing as a child who hates to read; there are only children who have not found the right book. —Frank Serafini

Children are made readers on the laps of their parents. —Emilie Buchwald

One of the greatest gifts adults can give—to their offspring and their society—is to read to children. —Carl Sagan

The Power and Importance of Reading for Students

Credits; TedxTalks

We recognize the importance of reading and the positive impact that it can have on your life. Reading is also instrumental when it comes to your performance in the entrance examinations. You don’t need to be stressed about how to tackle this section in your examination, the experts at Leverage Edu can guide you so that you are well-prepared to ace the examination.

The importance of reading skills & why is reading important?

This piece was updated on the 19th of February 2021. “The more you read, the more things you know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” This is a famous quote by Dr Suess. And it’s 100% accurate. The importance of reading skills cannot be stressed enough. As a teacher, I often find that when I express my concern about a child’s reading ability and comprehension to parents, particularly at around the age of 10, parents are quite taken aback and I’m greeted with “but they’re so young, give them a chance.” When a teacher shows concern in this area, it is with due cause. Reading is fundamental in helping us find and convey information. It’s an essential skill that’s developed at a very young age. Here’s why reading is beneficial to all of us, and how the importance of reading comprehension is essential to understanding the world around us.

The benefits of reading

Reading has many benefits, but it’s a skill that even a lot of adults don’t use enough. Apart from the necessity of reading to get by in today’s world, let’s look at some other benefits of reading and how these can contribute positively to your child’s development.

Reading helps you discover the world

Reading is a gateway to learning anything about everything. It helps you discover new things and educate yourself in any area of life you are interested in. You can find a book on just about any subject you can imagine, dive in and start learning. Your child can learn about their interests (and even themselves) through reading things they enjoy.

Reading develops your imagination and creativity

When we watch television or a movie, all the information is given to us on the screen – there’s nothing we need to imagine. A book in its pure form is just words on a page, and our minds have to do the work, imagining the words coming to life. This does wonders to develop our creativity and imagination.

Reading improves vocabulary and communication

Giving your child access to a world of words is one of the best ways to improve their vocabulary and enhance their spelling skills. New knowledge that’s gained through enjoyment has a tendency to stick and doesn’t even feel like work! Both their written and spoken communication abilities can be improved through regular reading.

Reading helps with building a good self-image and playing well with others

Learning new concepts, discovering exciting places and understanding others’ perspectives is key to building a well-rounded self-image – not to mention the self-esteem boost from being able to read well! It’s at early ages that children can be most easily influenced, and a positive reading experience can do wonders to help them form a positive perception of themselves. Reading also has social benefits. Children can discuss stories with others and form friendships over shared interests.

Reading improves concentration and reduces stress

Not only does reading focus your attention entirely on the task at hand, it also immerses you in the information, improving concentration and memory of what you read. Getting completely involved in a book can help us relax and feel calm.

Active vs passive reading

Learning to read is the first step. From there, your child will start to increase comprehension and become an active reader. The use of appropriate reading strategies is essential in learning and in life. So, what is the difference between a “passive” unskilled reader and an “active” skilled reader?

The passive reader

Have you ever read a page in a book and not taken in anything you’ve just read? Or caught yourself reading and re-reading the same paragraph without actively acknowledging the words? This is passive reading without any meaningful engagement.

The active reader

Active readers engage with what they’re reading. They read with an open and questioning mind, and they stop to think more about what things mean. Here are some ideas, as set out by Miami University, of how skilled active readers read:

They can predict what will happen next in a story using clues they gain from reading.
They create questions about the main idea, message or plot.
They monitor understanding of the sequence, context or characters.
They stop to clarify parts of the text that have confused them. They connect events in the text to prior knowledge or experience.

Problems with reading are often identified or can start to become an issue in Grade 4. It is at this stage that children need to start actively engaging with the material they read. They are required to find information through active reading. An example would be reading something with comprehension for school. Without active reading skills, children can’t make sense of how the information they’re reading connects with anything. If they’re required to compare two different sources of information, and their active reading skills aren’t starting to develop more fully, they will struggle to comprehend how to complete the task. If you’re interested in improving your child’s reading, you might be interested in promoting your child’s active listening skills.

The importance of reading comprehension

Reading comprehension is the ability to understand a written passage of text. It’s the bridge between the passive reader and active reader, and the crucial link to effective reading – essential for a rich academic, professional and personal life. Reading comprehension involves several different processes, such as imagining what the words describe, understanding the context of the book and being able to answer questions related to a text. Think about a book you’ve read before, and then try to summarise what the book was about. If your child can answer questions about a book or text, explain important events that happened in a story and have an opinion about why the events may have occurred, they’re displaying comprehension skills. Without reading and comprehension skills, children will struggle to grow academically, as reading is the foundation to all academic subjects such as History, Mathematics and Science. It also influences your child’s ability to write. Reading fluency is also a very important part of reading comprehension, as readers who spend their time decoding words often lose the understanding of what is being read. If your child is still decoding at a Grade 3 level, it’s vital to focus on the basics to give them a strong reading comprehension foundation. This can include paying more attention, auditory analysis, sound blending, memory, processing speed and visual perception. A lack of strong reading comprehension skills affects a child’s success at school, as academic progress depends on understanding, analysing and applying information gathered through reading.

How to help your child’s reading comprehension

If your child needs some help improving their reading comprehension, encourage active reading by focusing on these strategies:

Reading with purpose

Active reading encourages understanding through engagement with the text. If your child is interested in the material, they will be far more likely to involve themselves in learning about it and become a more active reader.

Learning vocabulary

It’s very easy to lose track of what you’re reading if you don’t understand some of the words, but we all tend to skim over words we don’t know on occasion without taking the time to look them up. Learning new vocabulary will help your child get a deeper understanding of what they’re reading. Ask your child to write down any words that they don’t understand and you can look up the meanings together.

Retelling what they’ve read

After they’ve read a short section of a text, ask your child to tell you about it in their own words. Recalling the story helps with comprehension, and you can also gauge how much they’ve understood.

Asking and answering questions

Read the same text or chapter as your child and open a discussion by asking them questions about it and inviting them to do the same. Discussing a book is an excellent way to check understanding and keep the material fresh in their mind.

Summarising the important facts

Summarising is a great way to improve active reading and comprehension skills. It requires an understanding of the whole text and judgement about which information is the most important. If your child can tell you the important parts of a story, they’re well on their way to being an exceptional active reader!

What should parents do to improve their child’s reading skills?

A lot of reading difficulty can come about because children feel like reading is hard work, or they just aren’t interested in what they are reading. Encouraging good reading habits is a step in the right direction for parents looking to help their children read well.

Read to your child

It’s never too early to start reading to your child and reading together can become a healthy and enjoyable family activity. Reading out loud exposes young children to new words that will help their language skills. Interacting with books from an early age helps to make the activity into a routine.

Read to yourself

If your child sees you reading regularly, they’re more likely to build an interest in the activity. Find a book you love and read whenever you get the chance. Your child will learn from you.

Surround them with books

Having a variety of books to choose from is a great way for your child to discover what interests them. Reading something enjoyable will do wonders for their curiosity and reading comprehension. They’ll be skilled, active readers in no time! Reading is important because words are the building blocks of life. Get your child excited about reading, and they’ll surprise you with their progress. WorksheetCloud offers your child access to engaging English and Afrikaans comprehension worksheets. Sign up now – we offer a seven-day money-back guarantee.

How to Develop Reading Skills in Your Child - Child Development

Reading skills are essential for a child to succeed in school. The more and earlier these skills are developed in a child, the higher his academic performance will be. If a child does not learn to read by the age of 8, they will have learning problems.

Parents are the first and main teachers of the child

The first teachers in the life of every child are his parents. Children develop language skills by listening to their parents and imitating them. From birth, children have the ability to produce the speech sounds of any language. From an early age, they hear their native language and try to reproduce it. The more time parents talk with the child, the better his speech develops.

When a child speaks the first words, feedback from the people around him helps him understand the meaning of these words and begin to use them in order to satisfy his needs. Gradually, he learns to compose phrases and sentences from words. So step by step the child learns to speak fluently and understand the speech of others.

Reading and writing is the same speech, only stated in writing. The only difference is that letters are used here, not sounds. The child learns individual letters and their combinations, and, finally, learns to form words from letters. The development of oral speech helps him develop writing skills.

Reading contributes to the development of the child

Every day parents should not only talk to a small child, but also read to him. This stimulates children's interest in books. Getting a little older, children try to imitate their parents in everything, including reading books. Parents need to instill a curiosity and interest in reading in their children. They should not only read books to him, but also discuss what they read together. The process of reading should be interesting for the child and cause him positive emotions.

When a child learns to read on his own, parents need to read with him. You should also continue to discuss with the child the content of the books read.

How to develop a child's interest in reading

When your child learns to read, enroll him in the nearest library so that he has the opportunity to read books that he likes. Buy him books and children's magazines that are appropriate for his age.

When to start teaching your child to read

Many children are ready to learn to read at the age of three or four, but some not until the age of six. If a child does not have delays in speech or mental development, hearing or vision impairments, the skills of perception of written speech are formed in him by the age of six.

Parents may be surprised to find that their three-year-old child can already read. He can learn this involuntarily by watching TV, or when you read him the names of stores on signs, etc.

Children learn language skills at their own pace. However, if you read regularly to your child, he is more likely to develop an interest in reading.

Where to start?

Reading skills should be developed by learning letters. You can learn the alphabet with a child at the age of six months to a year. Use pictures on which letters are drawn and objects whose names begin with these letters. You can dedicate each week to learning one letter. First, introduce the child to the new letter, then invite him to find it in words. So gradually the child will be ready to read the words.

It is also important to develop the child's phonemic awareness. The child must understand that words consist of individual sounds, and learn to perceive these sounds in a speech stream. Recent studies have proven that poems help children develop phonemic awareness. Therefore, read poetry to children and sing songs - this activity will bring you a lot of fun, and in addition, the child will learn to distinguish sounds. In addition, this way the child learns to read faster.

Why do some children find it difficult to learn to read?

Some children learn to read more easily than others. There are children who develop readiness for reading later than others. Some children are ready for this only at 6 years old. The fact is that a child must develop many skills before he can begin to develop reading skills. Each child develops these skills at an individual pace, which can vary greatly, while still remaining within the normal range.

Some children may be prevented from learning to read by problems with hearing, vision, language delays, poor short-term memory, or slow processing speed. If a child is not good at reading, talk to his kindergarten teacher or pediatrician - they will help determine the true cause. Some children may suffer from dyslexia. In this case, the child will be helped by a special training program.

Some children do not have any disabilities, but may not be suited to school methods. Talk to the teacher: your child may need extra classes or individual attention.

How to help a child with dyslexia overcome difficulties?

A child may experience difficulties in developing reading skills, for example, if he suffers from dyslexia. This may make him feel inferior or lose interest in learning. Difficulties in learning to read can cause depression or behavior problems in some children.

Research has shown that there is only one way to help a child with dyslexia learn to read. This is a reading training program that simultaneously uses several channels of perception (sight, hearing, touch) and is based on the development of phonemic perception and the distinction of individual sounds in a speech stream. The most effective in this regard is the Orton-Gillingham method. Based on it, many programs have been developed that prove their effectiveness in teaching children with dyslexia to read.

Benefits of reading to a child already in infancy - Child development

It is never too early to read aloud to a child. Numerous studies confirm that reading to children from the age of six months leads to the fact that after four years they will have well-developed vocabulary and literacy. It also matters how often parents read with their child during preschool age – this affects the development of reading and writing skills. Children are able to learn even when they are not yet able to speak.

It is generally accepted that the development of a child's literacy in school is directly dependent on reading skills. The ability to read is the main criterion for a child's readiness for primary school. However, a disturbing symptom has recently been observed: in most children, even by the third grade, reading skills are poorly developed.

Psychologists' opinion about the benefits of reading to children

Psychologists conducted a study to find out how important reading is at an early age. The study involved more than 260 children and their parents, the experiment lasted from the birth of a child to his admission to school. When the child was 6, 12, and 24 months old, the parents reported how often they read with the child and how many books they had at home (this made it possible to infer how many books were read). Parents also reported on the so-called "quality of reading" - whether they discussed what they read with their child, whether they looked at illustrations, whether they talked about the main characters, etc.

The researchers concluded that the quantity and quality of reading at an early age affect the size of a child's vocabulary and early development of reading skills (the quality of reading was especially important). Both the quantity and quality of reading influenced children's literacy and reading skills.

The results of the study fully confirm the existing theories of speech development in children. For young children, communication is extremely important, and reading aloud is one of its forms. According to research, children who hear more words than others in the first three years of their lives develop better reading skills later on and perform better in school.

Reading aloud develops memory and vocabulary

Reading a child from an early age contributes to the active development of neural connections in the areas of the brain responsible for speech, as well as the high speed of thought processes. This helps the child pay attention to the correct spelling of words in the text and reproduce them in the future. Such children have a better developed vocabulary, short-term memory, the ability to argue and abstract.

Reading is the easiest and most obvious way to teach a child a language. Reading increases vocabulary without having to take your child to the zoo to talk about elephants and camels. Reading always provides topics for conversation with the child. If you feel embarrassed or think it's stupid to tell a child who is not yet talking about everyday things that surround you, read a book to him.