At Birchwood Junior School, you won’t have to go far to see and hear that we are a reading school.

So why is reading so important to us?

Reading is an incredibly powerful, fulfilling, and rewarding activity. Not only does a book act as a comfort and a friend, it also acts as a teacher and a mentor, helping to teach children all about themselves, their world, and the cultures within it.

What are the Effects of Reading on Child Development?

Numerous pieces of research have discovered the profound benefits of reading for a child’s development. This includes the impact on literacy skills, facilitating social interaction between adults and children, and encouraging children to engage with the world around them. Reading can also be a ‘stable source of information’ throughout a child’s life. This stability allows them to access text in a consistent fashion and can be especially beneficial for children growing up in challenging circumstances.

Other benefits we notice in our students which is also reflected in research

Cognitive development

Cognitive development refers to how we perceive and think about our world in reference to our intelligence, reasoning, language development, and information processing. By reading to children, you provide them with a deep understanding about their world and increase their background knowledge. They then use this acquired background knowledge to make sense of what they see, hear, and read, which aids their cognitive development.

Developing empathy

When we read a book, we put ourselves in the story in front of us. This allows us to develop empathy as we experience the lives of other characters and can identify with how they are feeling. Children can then use this understanding to empathise in the real world with other people. Additionally, children will gain a greater understanding of emotions, which can help them understand their own emotions and those of others. This helps dramatically with their social development.

Gaining deeper understanding

A book can take us anywhere: to another city, to a different country, or even to an alternative world. By reading a book, a child learns about people, places, and events that they couldn’t learn otherwise. This gives children a deeper understanding of the world around them and cultures that are different from their own.

Building stronger relationships

If a parent reads with a child on a regular basis, then they will undoubtedly develop a stronger relationship with them. Reading provides parents with an opportunity to have a regular and shared event that both parent and child can look forward to. Furthermore, it provides children with feelings of attention, love, and reassurance which is key for nurturing and wellbeing.

Improved literary skills

Reading with aloud with young children, even if they can’t fully understand what you are saying, gives them the skills they need for when they begin to read by themselves. It shows children that reading is something achieved by focusing from left to right and that turning pages is essential for continuing. Reading to children in even the earliest months of their lives can help with language acquisition and stimulating the part of the brain that processes language.

More extensive vocabulary

Hearing words spoken aloud can expose children to a range of new vocabulary and phrases that they may not have heard otherwise. By reading to a child daily, they’ll learn new words every single day.

Higher levels of creativity and imagination

 Reading a book relies on us using our imagination for picturing characters, visualising their settings and environment, and guessing what’s coming next. We must use our imagination if we are to learn about other people, places, events, and times. In turn, this developed imagination leads to greater creativity as children use the ideas in their heads to inform their work.

See our reading section of the website to see how we have built our reading curriculum to ensure our students read daily, read widely and read for pleasure.