Here's why parents should spend more time reading with their children
| May 25, 2019, 11:56 IST
Do you often read to your children or do you hardly find the time to do so? It's understood that in today's stressful life parents might not be able to dedicate as much time as they'd want to their children. However, a new study claims that parents who spend more time reading with their children, use less harsh parenting techniques. And reading with their kids have an advantage for the children too as they're less likely to be hyperactive or have attention problems.
“For parents, the simple routine of reading with your child on a daily basis provides not just academic but emotional benefits that can help bolster the child’s success in school and beyond,” said study lead researcher Manuel Jimenez. “Our findings can be applied to programmes that help parents and caregivers in underserved areas to develop positive parenting skills,” Jimenez said.
The researchers conducted the study on over 2,000 mother-child pairs from 20 large US cities. The mothers were asked how often they read to their children at the ages of 1 or 3. Two years later, these women were asked how often they dealt with their children using physically or psychologically aggressive discipline methods and also how their children behaved after the study period.
It was found that children who were read to at the age of 1 showed less attention and hyperactivity problems at age 3 and the same went for children who were read to at age 3 and were now 5 years old. Since the kids had less attention and hyperactivity problems, the mothers also found themselves to be calmer when it came to disciplining their children. This shows how great a bond can be formed between a parent and child through something so simple as reading to them. Stay tuned for more updates.
“For parents, the simple routine of reading with your child on a daily basis provides not just academic but emotional benefits that can help bolster the child’s success in school and beyond,” said study lead researcher Manuel Jimenez. “Our findings can be applied to programmes that help parents and caregivers in underserved areas to develop positive parenting skills,” Jimenez said.
The researchers conducted the study on over 2,000 mother-child pairs from 20 large US cities. The mothers were asked how often they read to their children at the ages of 1 or 3. Two years later, these women were asked how often they dealt with their children using physically or psychologically aggressive discipline methods and also how their children behaved after the study period.
It was found that children who were read to at the age of 1 showed less attention and hyperactivity problems at age 3 and the same went for children who were read to at age 3 and were now 5 years old. Since the kids had less attention and hyperactivity problems, the mothers also found themselves to be calmer when it came to disciplining their children. This shows how great a bond can be formed between a parent and child through something so simple as reading to them. Stay tuned for more updates.
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