• Published by Salma Safira Sukma from BehaviorPALS Center 

Bedtime stories, both by reading a book or storytelling have multiple advantages for children’s brain development, especially in language skills. Other than helping you to get your child to sleep, bedtime stories are also beneficial to improve learning abilities. Research has found that children who read with their parents or being read to have higher cognitive skills than those who don’t. 

Below are other several benefits of bedtime stories for children:

1. Enhancing vocabulary and language acquisition

Being exposed regularly to a book or story is a great way for children to learn new vocabulary. Through bedtime stories, children can have new information, understanding, and representations of many new words which they may not have heard or rarely heard in their daily lives. Vocabulary acquisition is important for children’s language development and later communication skills. 

2. Improving concentration and attention span

Bedtime stories routine can be a good exercise for your children to practice their concentration and attention on what is being presented to them. While reading with your child, you can encourage them to look at the book by pointing at the drawings, the characters, or the words that you are reading. If you tell a story without a book, you might want to play with some gestures to attract their attention. Being able to pay attention and stay focused are very important skills to have especially when they are in school. 

3. Child-parent quality time

If you have to work all day and don’t have much time to spend with your child, then bedtime stories are a great opportunity to connect and have a moment with them. Many children love having a bedtime story because they know that it is the time where they can have a special moment with their parents. 

4. Relaxing and lowering stress level

Bedtime stories are helpful to get children to sleep because listening to stories or reading a book together with parents can help children to feel cozy and relaxed. When your child just had a bad day at school, bedtime stories might help lower their stress level as they get to snuggle with their parents at the end of the night and feel safe around them. 

5. Encouraging imagination and curiosity

Bedtime stories are a great tool to improve children’s imagination as they try to interpret a story based on what they are told or read and the pictures they see in books. Having a good imagination can help them to become independent readers in the future where books do not always include pictures or drawings. Through books, they can imagine a world they have never been in and it can encourage their curiosity to find other books that can hook their imagination.

6. Improving logic skills

Other than mastery of language, reading or hearing the same story repeatedly can also improve children’s logic skills. As children become familiar with a story, they will start to notice the patterns and sequences of it. They can also predict what will happen next based on their prior knowledge of the story. This ability to recognize patterns, sequences, and predict outcomes are beneficial for future learning in other areas like math, sciences, writing, and even music.

References:

5 wonderful benefits of reading bedtime stories to kids. (n.d.). The Early Childhood University. Retrieved January 5, 2023 from http://theearlychildhooduniversity.com/5-wonderful-benefits-of-reading-bedtime-stories-to-kids/

Ard, L. M., & Beverly, B. L. (2004). Preschool word learning during joint book reading: Effects of adult questions and comments. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 26(1), 17-28. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/15257401040260010101 

Oklahoma's Glenpool Fire Department Dads. (2005, October 5). The brainy benefits of bedtime stories. Parents. https://www.parents.com/fun/entertainment/books/the-brainy-benefits-of-bedtime-stories/

Schwarz, K. (2018). Why bedtime stories are so important. Kidspot. https://www.kidspot.com.au/features/v3/nd-393/why-bedtime-stories-are-so-important/

The importance of bedtime stories : 5 major benefits. (2019, October 6). Discover My World. Retrieved January 5, 2023 from https://www.discovermyworld.com.au/post/the-importance-of-bedtime-stories-5-major-benefits

Williams, S. E., & Jessica, S. H. (2014). Goodnight book: Sleep consolidation improves word learning via storybooks. Frontiers in Psychology, 5(184), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00184  

By: Salma Safira Sukma Ikhsani, S.Psi. from BehaviorPALS

benefits, bedtime stories, children

Pre-school 2 Years - 4 Years / 2 Tahun - 4 Tahun (Balita) / Reading / Membaca / Education / Pendidikan / Benefits of Bedtime Stories for Children

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