Why All the Fuss Over Books?

Reading aloud and sharing stories with your child is a great way to spend time together. Reading and storytelling also helps promote language, literacy and brain development.
According to Sonya Nedovic, early childhood educator from the Royal Children's Hospital Education Institute, reading can:

• help your child become familiar with sounds, words, language and the value of books
• spark your child’s imagination, stimulate curiosity and help his brain development
• help your child learn the difference between ‘real’ and ‘make-believe’
• help your child understand change and new or frightening events, and also the strong emotions that can go along with them
• help your child develop early literacy skills like the ability to listen to and understand words.

One of the first ways that children learn to understand and love book is by picture walking, this is the practice of just opening a book and looking at the pictures.  A guided picture walk, or storytelling, can also have the same effects as the the above mentioned benefits of reading.

So Run, don't walk to your nearest library and Get Reading!