How reading to children influences children’s memory development

This chapter uses a novel approach to understanding the benefits of reading to young children-a memory approach. After a brief review of the benefits of reading to children on emerging literacy, memory concepts are introduced along with a description of the development of episodic memory, semantic memory, and procedural memory. The memory approach to understanding the benefits of reading to children is then outlined. Ways in which reading to young children influences episodic, semantic, and procedural memory development are described. These include the roles of language development, scripts and schemas, questioning style, vocabulary, knowledge base, automaticity, decontextualized language, and implicit memory in the development of children’s memory processes. Finally, suggestions for ways to read to children in order to optimize their memory development are provided.