Reading and sharing books for pleasure can transform and echo into children's lives and impact on their understanding of the world, as well as their sense of identity and belonging.
Academic and intellectual benefits:
- Development of important literacy skills > long-term educational gains
- Academic achievement in areas including reading, writing, spelling, vocabulary and numeracy
- Early and frequent engagement with literature supports children’s oral language development and early reading skills, and impacts on their future reading proficiency
- Children learn information about the world, other places, cultures, times, ways of being and life experiences outside of their own, benefitting their learning in other curriculum areas
- Children develop higher-order cognitive and linguistic skills
- Successful engagement and participation in society
Social and emotional benefits:
- Children can learn about important qualities such as friendship, cooperation, perseverance, respect and honesty
- Help to develop values, assist in emotional healing, develop empathy and theory of mind
- Help children to explore feelings and affirm notions of acceptance, safety and wellbeing
- Allows children to consider multiple perspectives and beliefs and opinions of others
- Fosters a developing sense of belonging and of identity in children
- When children are exposed to inclusive literature representing diversity in authentic ways, a sense of pride and affirmation of their identities can be engendered.