Reading a bedtime story to your child is a tradition that goes beyond bonding time.  Not only sparking their love for reading, it can also play a vital role in their long-term success. 

"By age three, 85% of brain development is complete," says Melissa Tigges, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives at Cottage Door Press. "So, waiting until school to start a love of reading is too late."

Early reading leads to academic success, improved mental health, longer life expectancy.  But Tigges adds those aren't the only benefits. "There's vocabulary growth, the stimulation of creativity and imagination.... Children that are read to from birth tend to have exposure to a million more words than children who are not read to from birth." 

Developing reading skills is more crucial than ever with the recently released Nation's Report Card showing a decline in reading proficiency.  It shows students' reading scores dropping to the lowest level in history.  And some educators point to increased screen time, shortened attention spans, and a decline in reading longer-form content as contributing factors. "The amount of people reading aloud to their kids and kids reading for pleasure has dropped substantially," Tigges reports.

And to help foster a love of reading, Tigges suggests starting as early as birth and cultivating reading habits throughout early childhood.  "The first couple of years, again, it's just more about engaging with them and reading to them so that they can hear this language," she says, "By three or four giving them some independent reading time, giving them books that are at their level letting them go to the library and pick out what they want to read."

As they get older, it can become more difficult to get them to put down the screens and pick up a book. But Tigges reminds parents not all screens equal wasted screen time, "There are ways to use technology in a way that is beneficial. And you know these kids are part of this more. You know, advanced technologically advanced generation. And we again, have to kind of meet them where they're at and find tools that help bridge the gap between the old and the new."

The best way to raise a reader? Be one yourself. Tigges encourages parents to model behavior and remember that any reading is learning. her advice: "Not worrying so much about what they're reading, just that they are reading,"