# 10 reasons to read stories with our children > I am a fan of stories. I cannot think of a better way of communication between parents and children than through stories. - **Author:** mireia-navarro-vera · **Category:** Infantil - **Published:** 2016-10-12 · **Updated:** 2016-10-15 - **URL:** https://elteuespai.com/en/10-reasons-read-stories-children/ - _Translation pending clinical review._ --- I am a fan of stories. I cannot think of a better **way of communication between parents and children** than through stories. **Reading with them every day** is **the best gift we can give them.** There are so many benefits that I have decided to bring them together in an article to convince all parents to encourage this habit. It is something easy, simple and that does not require too much effort on our part. Shall we begin?? ## We spend quality time with them ![Smiling family outdoors, parents giving their two children piggyback rides](/images/blog/2016/10/tiempo-calidad-300x190.webp) It is a **moment of calm and physical closeness**. We lie down next to them on the bed or close together on the sofa, because we all need to be able to see the book and therefore it requires physical contact. They feel **our slow breathing**, **our voice**, and their minds begin to soar with their imagination. **We are not only reading, we are creating a bond**. It is a moment of relaxation and harmony that we should all experience. ## We stimulate language and educate During the first 6 years of life it has been proven that regular reading stimulates and favours the development of language and the acquisition of simple rules such as waiting for conversational turns. Their brain is prepared to develop those areas that it will later use in the acquisition of reading and writing, and therefore we also help them to become good readers. ## We foster good habits Remember that one of the functions we have as parents is that of being **generators of** healthy **habits. They do what they see.** If we show them **the magic of reading**, they will feel a great curiosity to learn to read, **they will be drawn to letters** and they will probably read more as adults. ## We communicate better ![Family sitting together on the grass in a park](/images/blog/2016/10/mejora-la-comunicacion-300x200.webp) **It is the best way to reach our children**. We parents have the **sad tendency to deliver lectures** every other minute. Our child comes home from school and tells us that a kid hit him, and it takes us two seconds to deliver a lecture that always ends with a “what you have to do is….” Luckily, by that point our child is no longer listening to us. When I work with parents in my practice, I tend to always recommend the same thing: **when you want to explain something to your child, do it with a story**. **They will listen to you with the greatest of their attention, with eyes wide open, and they will understand the moral at the end the first time.** You can make up stories with characters who resemble them and who do wonderful things. ## They help with life lessons Through stories they peek into a world that helps them understand their own. They learn to relate to others, to empathise, to identify with others, to experience emotions… They are learning everything that they will later encounter in life. ## They serve to give bad news In the face of **a divorce** of the parents or **the death** of a grandparent, **stories can be great allies** that help us explain it to our children. We find it very difficult to give bad news, and that is why sometimes we need help to take the plunge. What could be better than a story to explain to them what death is? In addition, they see that it also happens to other children and how they overcome it. ## They serve to talk about sex **Sex is another topic that is very hard to talk about at home**. There are books for different ages that can help us answer those uncomfortable questions and help us provide good sexual education. If you are interested, you can find them in our post [how and when to talk about sex with our children](/en/how-and-when-to-talk-about-sex-with-our-children/) ![Books stacked in a pile. Old, tattered books](/images/blog/2016/10/libros.webp) ## We can use them to solve their difficulties When we see that our child has **difficulties in some area of their life**, we can **use a story to help them**: an example in which I use stories a lot is in toilet training, to help children **with the use of the potty or the toilet**. I make up a story with the specific difficulties of that boy or girl, but which happens to a teddy bear in a story I invent for them; in the end that teddy bear overcomes the difficulty in a special way and its parents feel very proud of it. They can also serve **for sleep problems**, **to introduce new foods that they do not even want to look at,** to resolve a conflict at school, … In short, **any difficulty** that arises **can be sorted out with a tailor-made story.** ## They help to overcome fear There are many books that talk about fear, about what it is… but at this point, what I want to say is **how to make up a book that helps to overcome the specific fear that our son or our daughter has**. **Children's fears are irrational** (and many of those of adults too) and their thinking is magical, that is, **everything is possible**. These two components mean that fear is often insurmountable. If they are afraid of the wolf, it is of no use to tell them that the wolf cannot come because it lives very far away and cannot get in through the door because it is closed. These **are rational explanations that have no effect against an irrational fear.** Instead **a magical solution can be much more effective**, even a solution that the child himself or herself invents. For that, **make up a story with a main character who resembles your child and who meets the wolf** (or whatever fear they have) **in their room and defends himself**… You can even leave an open ending and ask your child how he thinks he could defend himself. ## You work on emotional education Emotions are essential and they are also learned. There is more and more talk about [emotional intelligence](/en/9-characteristics-of-emotional-intelligence-we-should-develop/) because we are increasingly aware of its importance. That is why we must introduce this work both at home and in schools. **Learning is based on emotion:** **“Without emotion there is no learning”** Psychologists know this, and the truth is that there is no better way to work on emotions than stories. They help us to put names to them, to understand them, to recognise and identify them and, most importantly, to manage them. **There are many books that can help us educate our children about emotions. Here I leave you a selection of some of them.**