Storytelling has been a way in which human beings compartmentalise and organise their experiences. It's not just that individuals are the narrators of things happening around them but they are also the narrators of their lives. Many individuals have argued that using a narrative is the best way to express and learn about ourselves and our relationships. And, all of this starts at birth. Research confirms that reading and understanding stories play a crucial part in cognitive development.
But in a generation where it is much more convenient to get a child hooked to a phone or a tablet, parents tend to neglect the fruitful reading sessions they could give their kids. This is where reading tutors can be of immense help. In this article, we discuss how reading tutors can help boost the cognitive development of your child but first let us understand the stages of cognitive development.
Reading is a complex task that requires individuals to process multiple aspects of print concurrently (such as orthographic, phonological, and semantic information). In this section, we understand how cognitive skills relate to reading.
| Cognitive Skill | How does the Skill Relate to Reading? |
| Visual Sustained Attention | Staying focused for a period of time to accumulate several letters into a word or several words into a sentence. |
| Visual Span | The amount of information that can be taken in at a glance, i.e. taking in several words at a time. This enables reading to be faster and more fluent. |
| Visual Discrimination | The ability to differentiate a p from a b and an m from an n. To recognise them without |
| consciously having to evaluate them. | |
| Visual Processing Speed | Faster the brain can process the visual stimuli that appear on the page, the more likely the reader can combine them into meaningful words and phrases. |
| Auditory/Visual Sequential Memory | The ability to recall a sequence of bits of information is critical in remembering and recognizing the spelling of a word. |
| Working Memory | Being able to hold information so that words can fit into groups that have meaning. |
| Conceptual Thinking | The aspect of interpretive thinking is the ability to form concept collections of features that create an idea or a category. For example, fairness is a concept that the readers may need to form during the reading process. |
For some children, reading doesn’t come easy. But no matter where a child may be in terms of fluency in reading, hiring a reading tutor is a great choice (especially for working parents). Moreover, a professional reading tutor not only helps kids learn to read but also works closely with them to determine their unique needs.
When a reading tutor regularly reads with a child, it helps build strong pathways in the brain. This in turn builds language, literacy, and social-emotional skills that can have life-long health benefits.
Reading will also essentially improve the background knowledge of a child’s young world. This in turn will help the kid to make sense of what they hear, see and read.
Further, a study on toddlers' cognitive development states, "When a toddler is being read to by a reading tutor, in a matter of seconds, thousands of cells in their young brains start to respond. Some brain cells are triggered and turned on by a particular experience. At the same time, new brain cells are formed, while many existing connections among the brain cells are strengthened, adding a bit more definition and complexity to the intricate circuitry that will largely remain in place for the rest of their lives.”
Therefore, the more reading tutors will read to children, the larger their vocabulary will grow, and the more they will know and understand the world and their place in it. This will assist the cognitive development and perception of the children.
Reading is one of the most effective strategies to help a child’s brain to develop. It not only helps with comprehension, enhanced vocabulary, and fluency skills but also aids in boosting your child's cognitive development. So if you are a full-time working parent or are simply looking for professional reading tutors, contact us at Read with Us. We will help in building a strong cognitive foundation for your child at a young age.
