Reading as a linguistic activity represents a complex process involving several interconnected components: decoding, comprehension, analysis, and interpretation of written text. Reading picture books and children's books stimulates the development of memory, speech,creativity, and imagination. During shared reading sessions between parents or educators and children, a mutual connection is established. This helps build children's reading habits, whichare crucial for their further development. The theoretical part of this paper discusses what reading is, the stages of acquiring reading comprehension, and the techniques for acquiring reading skills. It further emphasizes the importance of fostering reading, the characteristics of an environment that encourages children to read, and how the family, society, and preschool institutions can influence the cultivation of reading habits in children. Special emphasis is placed on interpretative reading by educators in preschool settings and storytelling and reading fairy tales in preschool institutions, highlighting the significance of educators' literacy and reading culture. Additionally, the theoretical section addresses the formation of reading habits, the concept of prenatal reading, early literacy, and the creation of reading rituals and reading corners. The research part of the paper involved a study aimed at determining the reading habits of parents and their children. According to the survey results, almost half of the surveyed parents reported reading to their children every day, two parents noted in the survey that they rarely read to their children, and one parent mentioned reading to the child based on the child's interest. All obtained data are presented through graphs.