We all know that reading is a fundamental skill for children to have. As an avid reader, children can gain unimaginable life skills that will help them not only as a child, but as they grow into adulthood. From helping with writing skills, to developing an active imagination, and more, becoming a bookworm has more benefits than not.

While you are adhering to stay-at-home orders to help flatten the curve, encourage your child to pick up an extra book or two because according to the experts, here are five ways your child could benefit from reading.

1. Increased vocabulary: When you become an avid reader, your vocabulary and language skills develop at a more advanced rate. Encourage your kids to look up new words that they find and add them to their arsenal. This will definitely help them in the long run at school and beyond. 

2. Increased memory: When you are an avid reader, your brain works overtime to help recall events, characters, names, etc. There is no secret as to why this one is important. Reading helps give your child’s brain a healthy workout that, once again, will help them in the long run at school and beyond. They won’t forget a vocabulary word, math equation, birthday, anniversary, or anything. Their minds will grow into a steal trap. 

3. Increased ability to tune-out: When you are an avid reader, your ability to tune-out and tune-in is impeccable. If you aren’t focused on what you are reading, you miss details that are important. When you read a lot, you tend to tune-out the world around you and tune-in to comprehending what is on the page. This is a great skill for kids in the classroom. Being able to tune-out the distractions around you, will definitely assure that if the classroom gets a little noisy, you will still be able to focus on what you need to do. 

4. Increased writing ability: When you are an avid reader, you build vocabulary, and that helps you to become a better writer. Reading is writing practice. You get the opportunity to “study” writing styles of a variety of authors. The more you read, the easier it will be to write your own words. 

5. A hobby on-the-go: Whether it is a physical book or an e-book, taking your reading with you has never been easier. Once we are all back out an about, make sure to load a few books onto your child’s iPad. If you establish the habit now, then they will be well in the groove and instead of playing video games while waiting at the doctors office, they may surprise you and opt to read instead.