1. Bedtime stories fill your child’s word bank
One picture book a day adds up to about 290,000 more words heard by kindergarten than for a child who is never read to. At five books a day, it’s about 1.4 million. Book words are richer than everyday talk, so each story teaches words children rarely hear in conversation.
Source: Logan et al., 2019.
2. Stories build the imagination
When children listen to a story, they picture it in their own minds. Preschoolers who are read to more at home show stronger activity in brain areas for mental imagery and understanding stories.
Source: Hutton et al., 2015.
3. Picture books are “just right” for young children
Researchers compared the same stories as audio only, as an illustrated book and as a cartoon. The illustrated story was the sweet spot: the pictures helped children follow along while their imagination still did the work.
Source: Hutton et al., 2020. Every Luna story is built this way: one still illustration and a page of words, read aloud by you.
4. Reading together grows language
The conversation around a story is where language grows fastest. When parents asked open questions and built on their toddlers’ answers while reading, the children’s spoken language ran about six months ahead.
Source: Whitehurst et al., 1988. Learn the technique in how to read aloud so children talk back.
5. Children love stories about themselves
When the story is about them, children lean in. In studies of personalised books, preschoolers talked more, smiled more and picked up new words more readily.
Source: Kucirkova, Messer & Sheehy, 2014. More in personalised bedtime stories.
6. A story makes the bedtime routine work
Routines work best when they happen most nights, and a story is the step children look forward to. In a study of over 10,000 families, each extra routine night a week went with falling asleep faster, waking less and sleeping longer.
Source: Mindell et al., 2015. See our bedtime routine guide for a simple four-step plan.
7. It is time together
Story time is ten minutes of undivided attention at the end of the day. The World Health Organization encourages “reading and storytelling with a caregiver” for every child under 5.
Source: World Health Organization, 2019. Parents, grandparents, sitters and older siblings all count.
How to get the most from every bedtime story
- Let your child choose. A story they picked is a story they want to hear.
- Read slowly. Give each picture time; let your child point and ask.
- Ask one or two questions. “What do you think happens next?”
- Same time, same place. The story becomes the signal that sleep is next.
- End with “The End”. Then cuddles, goodnight words and lights out.
