10 Ways Your Writing Can Improve by Reading to Kids

by Julie Lavender @JLavenderWrites

This summer, our kindergarten-graduated grandson will join us for a week in June and a week in July, between camps and his other grandparents, to help out our kiddos who both work full-time jobs. My writing may take a backseat during those weeks, but instead, I’ll ramp up my reading time. Kid lit reading, that is. 

I loved reading to my children when they were little. At that time, I didn’t ponder the benefits of reading aloud to them—I just knew how much I enjoyed snuggling with a picture book in my hands and littles in my lap. 

I hope you’ll use some of the extra, non-school hours of summertime to treat your kids or grandkids to lots and lots of picture books. 

Here’s a few of the benefits of reading to kids to take to heart, whether you’re a children’s author or adult author. Many of these I found while researching the HeadStart webpage or the Child Mind Institute. 

Improve Your Writing When You Read to Kids

• 1. First and foremost, child experts believe reading to children encourages and enhances language development. Little ones, even babies, learn to associate the spoken word with pictures on a page, and then eventually the words on the page. Reading to a child lays the groundwork for language use and comprehension and literacy. 

According to ChildMind.org, parents who read to their children expose their kids to at least 290,000 more words by the time they start kindergarten than kids who are not read to regularly. 

• 2. Reading enhances brain development. Headstart.gov states that babies’ brains make preparations to speak long before they say their first words. Children need a wealth of language to encourage that brain development.

• 3. Reading to children strengthens the bond between the parent and child. Especially in today’s climate, reading with a child removes them from the possibility of screen time and gets them to connect with you as the parent and spend quality time together. 

• 4. Book time shared together gives parents and children opportunities for back and forth interactions, from gestures and gibberish with little ones pre-language and actual verbal question and answer time or conversations about the books with older ones.

• 5. Reading a host of books to children about kids in other places or in homes with different parenting styles or characters who are different boosts empathy and understanding in the child being read to. 

Yes, reading to children is vitally important to their academic and emotional growth and success. 

But are their benefits to the reader who is also a writer? I’m adding a few of my own ideas about how reading aloud to children stimulates the writer’s brain, too.

• 6. Fiction writers who read picture books to kids are exposed to short pieces with an arc, characters, plot, setting, theme, and dialogue. Readers make better writers, and the opportunity to ingest these characteristics of a book boosts creativity for the next writing opportunity. 

• 7. Non-fiction writers who read fiction get the same benefits as above, because some of the best non-fiction pieces take advantage of those same fiction techniques listed above. 

• 8. Fiction writers and non-fiction writers who read non-fiction books to kids gain information that’s fun and educational and just might spark some creative ideas and whet the appetite for new projects.

• 9. Reading aloud to kids can break a spell of writers’ block. Sometimes when we’re not thinking about a project and participate in an unrelated creative activity, our brain rests and rejuvenates and sends us back to the project with fresh ideas and enthusiasm.

• 10. It’s fun! And writers like to have fun!!

Spend time reading with little ones this summer, lots and lots of time. I’m convinced blessings will abound – for you the reader, for the ones being read to, and for your current work-in-progress. 

Join the conversation. What’s your favorite children’s book to read to little ones?

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10 Ways Your Writing Can Improve by Reading to Kids from @JLavenderWrites on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Julie Lavender has too many favorite picture books to choose just one. Her long-time dream of writing a children’s book came true last fall with the release of A Gingerbread House. She had a ton of fun promoting it during the holidays and would love for you to order a copy in preparation for this year’s holiday season. Or, celebrate Christmas in July and read it to a favorite little one then! She’s also the author of books for adults that include a mom’s devotional and a book about raising sons.