Children between four and seven years old watch more than two hours of television per day. To acquire reading habits, it is essential for parents and children to read together.
“I have no special talents,” Albert Einstein used to say, “I am only passionately curious.” If there was something in life that Einstein considered fundamental, it was “never stop asking questions.”
Curiosity is something innate in us, and childhood is the best time to discover this curiosity and to encourage in children the desire and enthusiasm to do things, countering the tendency to spend the whole day sitting in front of a screen.
However, the taste for activity must be developed within the family. Parents need to know what readings they can share with their children and what activities favor their growth, in the context of an environment receptive to knowledge and open to the world. It is vital that children be responsible citizens and have empathy for all members of the society in which they live.
Reading is, without a doubt, one of the most positive habits, a kind of cornerstone of learning. Reading is above all fun, as it transports us to countless times and places, introduces us to characters that help us experience situations, broadens our mind and horizons, fosters empathy, and teaches us countless things.
Without realizing it, reading helps us acquire knowledge and skills, ranging from facts and data to linguistic and communicative abilities. In addition, “reading improves concentration, creativity, curiosity, and memory,” says Mariola Lorente, a graduate in Philosophy and researcher at the University of Parents. “It is essential for children to be in contact with books from babyhood,” states Lorente. “Reading together and daily is an enriching experience that does not have to end when children can read on their own. In addition to fostering the reading habit, that sharing moment is an intimate and special one that creates wonderful bonds between parents and children,” says this specialist.
In Spain, only 35% of parents engage in shared reading with their children, according to data from the Asociación Española de Comprensión Lectora. The number is surprisingly low, given that, according to Rafael Villalón, coordinator of the study, “ten minutes daily of shared reading make up only 1% of the time parents have available.”
It is also advisable for “parents to visit libraries and bookstores with their children at least once a week and, above all, to instill in them a love for reading: books should be a gift, not an obligation.”
However, the most important incentive for children to become familiar with reading is seeing their parents read. It is well known that children who have a library at home will inevitably feel closer to books and thus develop a greater love for reading.
Source: Beatriz G. Portalatín