What is the Emotional Connection and Reading with Kids?

The emotional connection and reading with kids can’t be denied. However, there are a number of different ways to do it. Let’s take a look at each one.

The first is the connection that takes place when kids are allowed to process their emotions. In order to help prompt them, parents can ask, when it comes up in stories, what makes them sad or worried. Empathic feelings can also arise about characters in a particular story, giving parents the opportunity to empathize with them about what’s going on in their life, says the article “Benefits of Helping Preschoolers Understand and Discuss Their Emotions.”

Parents should start reading to their kids when they are still babies, according to the Kids’ Health organization. And most young kids love stories with emotion in them, so it shouldn’t be hard to get them to enjoy an emotionally-laden story, says the article “Books to Help Kids Develop Emotional Intelligence.”

What can also prompt emotions in reading is by a baby hearing the parent use expressive sounds and different emotions, which also helps in developing emotional and social development. However, the biggest reason is that it forms a bond with what a baby loves the most, and that’s the sound of his or her parent’s voice, says the organization.

Books with pictures are another way to teach emotional literacy, states the article on preschoolers. Drawings and other kinds of illustrations serve as visual context clues, it says. For example, when a worrying, happy or scary situation takes place, the parent can pause for a moment to look at the picture and ask his or her child “How do you think the character is feeling?”

Whether it’s mainstream kids or English language learners (ELLs), all kids benefit in learning how to manage their emotions. For Spanish-speaking, dual language children, one program that really stands out is The Latino Family Literacy Project. It’s a program that helps parent set up a reading routine where they read bilingual books out loud together. Teachers can attend a program training at a workshop near them or through an online webinar.