Reading also helps with vocabulary development. If you want your child to have a good vocabulary, encourage the child to read. The same goes for spelling. It is easier to learn to spell correctly through repetitive reading. The words and the correct spelling became a part of you.
Reading helps children learn to think.
They read, they ask questions, they think. A child who doesn't read and is not encouraged to read is undereducated and functionally illiterate. We see many of these as adults who work in fast food restaurants. Their cash register has pictures of the various foods rather than words. They live in a pictorial world, sometimes not even being able to read and understand the newspaper.