How important is reading to the development of a child?

E S S E N T I A L !!!

It is very important. It encourages curiosity, creativity, and a healthy desire to learn and experience life.

I think reading to children is very important! It not only exposes them to a variety of words, but it opens up their imagination! We read to our kid when starting very young, all kinds of books and novels... Lion Witch and the Wardrobe was a fav. Now today they are 16 and 17 and love to read... they have hundreds of books. They take AP Literature and thrives on writing too!
Now the question is, math isn't their favorite at all.... so if you have a child and you start doing math problems every night for an hour before bed, starting when they are babies, will the excel in math? Hmmm..... I should have been doing Calculus at 6yrs!!! :P

The most important thing you can do because it is the foundation of our ability to speak and communicate.

if you have to ask,maybe you havnt read enough?

One of the most important things you can do is read to your child. Some people (I'm one of them) believe that at conception reading to a child starts to help it's development. I was read to by my mother pretty much every night as a child. (and she said that she read to me while she was pregnant) I have a love for books, am very intelligent and have a great bond with my mother. Being read to didn't do all of that by itself but it really does (science proves it) help a childs developement. and just spending time with your child will help your bond so it's a double dose of good. it also encourages your child to read on their own once they are old enough. Nothing negative comes from reading a book. There is no downside except i got in trouble for skipping chores to read... =)

They would have a lot of trouble in school if they cant read well. School and life are heavily filled with witten words.

Reading to your child is HUGE! There are so many benefits to it from simply stopping your day for a short time to spend one on one time with your child, to opening up his/her world. As books are read and explored kids become aware of an increasing amount of information about the world and it sparks their curiosity and natural love of learning. Start with heavy cardboard baby books, then simple stories and question books which the kids love. Your local library is a great place to start and most have story times geared to specific ages. If you nurture a love of reading it will lend itself nicely to a love of learning. One thing that saddens me is often parents do not teach their children to respect books and books are torn, colored on and damaged to the point that it's hard for anyone else to focus on the story so please also work in little tidbits about how treat books and supervise your young ones.

I know Midlifemadness was joking about the hour of math with the little ones but there are simple games that can be played that build math skills and encouraging puzzles is another great way to promote critical thinking and problem solving skills. Discovery Toys has wonderful toys and games that are fun for the kids to play with that introduce shapes, spatial awareness and other pre math skills starting at an early age or continue to build on the skills depending on the age of the child. I was fortunate enough to have access to these toys for my kids when they were little and my kids loved them. All of my kids are quite bright and one is downright scary especially in math and science. He was so into puzzles that he was doing puzzles for 8 and above at 3 ½ years old without any help. In fact I had to create a puzzle out of his name to get him to decide the alphabet was worth his attention! All my boys are voracious readers and are doing well in school.