Reading Time Is Quality Time

When parents, grandparents, and others read to children, it helps them develop beyond just learning to read. According to neuropsychologist Laura Phillips, “Just exposure to words is the single most important thing that you can do to help build the language pathways in your child’s brain…. Reading and exposure to words helps kids maximize their language and cognitive capacity” (Child Mind Institute, December 12, 2025). Studies have found that children whose parents read to them daily may enter kindergarten having heard, potentially, more than a million words more than a child whose parents did not. Further, “the more words that are in a child’s language world, the more words they will learn, and the stronger their language skills are when they reach kindergarten, the more prepared they are to be able to read, and the better they read, the more likely they will graduate from high school” (PBS.org, June 24, 2014).

Reading to children promotes their cognitive development, enhances their preparation for academic success, increases their ability to concentrate, and teaches them discipline (All For Kids, March 11, 2025). Cognitive development is the emergence of the ability to think and understand; it is “the construction of thought processes, including remembering, problem solving, and decision-making, from childhood through adolescence to adulthood” (HealthOfChildren.com).

On several occasions, Jesus challenged His audience with questions starting with “Have you not read” (Matthew 12:3, 5; 19:4; 22:31). If you are looking to answer in the affirmative, you can start reading to your children from the Bible and supplementing your study with the Tomorrow’s World Bible Study Course.