Bibliotherapy invites the use of carefully prescribed literature to heal many mental and emotional wounds, but it’s not only for adults. Children are naturally drawn to stories, inventing imaginative worlds of their own through play, and often experiencing a deep emotional connection to their favorite fictional characters as the lines between make-believe and reality blur in the early childhood years of development.

Just as reading can help adults overcome anxiety, depression, grief, and more, sitting down with your child to read together can help them navigate their own challenging emotions and experiences. All you need is 20 minutes, a comfortable seat, your little one’s listening ear, and the right book.

Here are five ways that reading with your child can protect their mental health:

Research clearly supports the fact that reading fiction increases the reader’s capacity to better understand others (Mar R. A. et al., 2006).

Recent studies have investigated how picture books specifically foster empathy in young children and found that two variables are important. First, children must be deeply immersed in the story. Second, they must find themselves identifying with the protagonist, especially if it is a character who is different from them.

In fact, it takes significantly more cognitive resources to identify with someone in a perceived out-group, making stories about characters who differ from your child the most valuable for empathy-building, as opposed to stories about characters who are like them (Kucirkova N., 2019). The value of empathy is vast, and it is undeniably critical to your child’s success in school, work, and healthy relationships (Riess H., 2017). The more high-quality fiction that your child reads, from a young age, the more empathic human beings they will become.

Reading helps children to feel understood and lets them know that they are not alone in their experiences of growing up. Whether you’re reading a story about the complex emotions that arise after becoming a big brother or sister,........

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