Why is Bedtime Stories Important for Children

bedtime stories

As a parent, your prime concern is your child’s health and well being. Health is taken care of when you provide nutritious food, and a healthy and safe environment for your child will take care of their well-being. Along with these, parents want their kids to grow up to be a good human being in life.

Niki has a six-year-old son. She says that ever since her son turned two, they have set aside 30 minutes before going to bed for bedtime story sessions. Her son enjoys them a lot. They get to spend time together, share a lot and she is also able to teach him about moral values and important life skills.

Many parents are in the habit of reading or sharing bedtime stories with their children. They usually take it as a fun activity. The only thing that most parents need to realize that sharing or narrating bedtime stories can be instrumental in building your child’s personality as well.

Spending time during bedtime story sessions also have some other benefits that are mentioned below:

  • Quality time – Reading or narrating stories help parents spend some quality time with children before they end their day. A lot of sharing happens during that time.
  • Strengthens the family bond – After a long hectic day where children are busy with school, play, television, and parents are busy attending to household chores and professional commitments, bedtime story session gives parents and children a chance to strengthen their relations and bond with each other.
  • Relaxes the mind – Bedtime stories are a great way of relaxing a child’s mind. The mood is set for a comfortable and sound sleep as children cuddle up in bed and unwind after a long day.
  • Enhances imagination – Many of the story books have fairy tales, stories of superheroes, some ancient characters, animals, forests and adventures that triggers the imagination of young ones because such scenes are not common in their day-to-day lives.
  • Creative thinking and problem-solving skills – Bedtime story sessions can become a great tool in developing creative thinking for children as well. Parents can always read or narrate stories with interesting twists. Pause before the end and ask the child to suggest an end to the story or you may narrate a few lines and then ask the child to continue. It will be fun and will help the child to think creatively as well as look out solutions for the possible problem situations.
  • Improves communication skills –  During these story sessions, parents and children get a chance to interact and discuss the characters and the story line. Many new words are read and discussed. This results in improved communication skills and enhanced vocabulary.

Kaitlin admits that bedtime stories give her those few moments when her daughter shares her wishes, imagination and her dreams. She also shares incidents from her daily life with her mother. It helps Kaitlin to stay in touch with what is going on in her 8-year-old daughter’s life.

  • Increases attention span – Most children enjoy listening to stories as they find them interesting. It can also be made interesting by narrating it with the help of facial expressions and hand movements. Listening and reading bedtime stories in a routine can improve the attention span and listening skills of children.
  • Source of inspiration – Most of these stories for children have a good moral at the end, they can be helpful in inculcating life skills like honesty, courage, respect, generosity, etc. Such stories also have inspiring life stories or situations that can motivate the child to be a successful and good human being.

Conclusion

Young children are like soft clay. We can mold their personalities and their thoughts the way we want to shape them. Bedtime stories are a good way of doing so. Children consider their parents as role models and try to copy their actions.

Similarly, they get inspired by the thoughts of their parents and try to become like them. If they listen and discuss morals, values, life skills and problem solving skills with their elders, these important values and skills will go deep into their system and make them a better human being.

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Is it not a wonderful thing! For those who are not practicing it, make bedtime story sessions a part of your daily routine. Sow the seeds and benefits will be multiple.

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About the Author

Varsha Tyagi is a Master's in Psychology with 5 years of Experience as a Life Skills Coach and a Counseling Psychologist. She has worked with many schools, colleges and corporates as a Counselor and a Life Skills Trainer and dealt with both children and adults. She is currently working as a Life Skills Facilitator with an organization.

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