Does your child beg you to read ‘just one more book’ at bedtime? Or maybe it’s you begging your child to read with you. Regardless of what reading time looks like in your family, there are many tips and tricks to make reading more fun and interactive for your child. Shared book reading is an effective and interactive way to help your child learn vocabulary, explore their environment, share their ideas, and build their language skills. Let’s talk about some strategies you can try when reading with your child!
We may not think much of how we spend the few seconds or minutes before or after reading a book. Below are a few ways we can use this time to promote vocabulary learning and language growth.
Before reading
- Read the Title and the author’s name.
- Ask questions to build interest and encourage your child to make predictions (e.g., What do you think this book is about? Why do you think I chose this book? Why did you choose this book?)
- Discuss vocabulary in the title or cover which may be new to your child.
After reading
- Continue to ask questions related to the story and make personal connections between the story and your child’s life.
- Discuss favourite parts of the story or favourite characters.
- Practice re-telling the story using words or actions.
While reading, there are numerous strategies you could try to engage your child. You could model social skills by taking turns; language skills by commenting about the pictures, characters, and story; and, literacy skills by emphasizing key story elements.
Let’s go through an example together. Below are different ways to model speech and language skills when reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.
Note: It’s okay to read the same book many times or change the text in a book to better match your child’s interests or needs.
General Tips
- Give your child opportunities to share ideas. Try to wait a few seconds before pointing or talking.
- Try to read the book at your child’s pace when possible. Point to vocabulary (text or pictures) in the story and give clear, child-friendly definitions.
Practice Turn-taking
- Take turns with your child to turn the pages
- Take turns saying fun words/sounds like ‘yumm’ or to complete fun actions/gestures
Build vocabulary
- Emphasize the key words that are important for understanding (e.g., caterpillar, food labels).
- Point and label objects (e.g., leaves, sun, moon), action words (e.g., the caterpillar is walking, eating), emotion words (e.g., happy butterfly), location words (e.g., it’s on the leaf), and description words (e.g., yellow sun).
- Describe characters in the book while pointing to the pictures or text.
- Ask questions related to the story.
- Try to get your child’s attention to the book by pointing or making exciting statements (e.g., Look, a firetruck!).
Make connections from the story to your child’s experiences
- The book has a picture of a big leaf. Talk about a time you saw leaves outside.
- The book has many food items. Talk about foods your child likes and does not like to eat.
- The book has a sun and moon. Talk about whether there is a sun or moon outside (e.g., whether it’s daytime or nighttime).
- Use your imagination to make imaginative connections to the story. Make hypothetical statements (e.g., starting with ‘maybe …’).
Talk about different categories
- Categories of food items (e.g., healthy food, junk food, fruits, desserts)
- Opposite words throughout the story like big/small, hungry/full, skinny/fat
- Emotion words like happy and sad
- Days of the week as you go through the story
- Name numbers as you open each flap
- Day vs. night (pictures of the sun and moon)
Increasing phrase length
- If your child points to a picture and uses 1-2 words, add another word to their utterance (e.g., if a child says: “apple”, you could say “red apple”, “eat apple”, “one apple”, “I see an apple”)
Past and Present Tense
- Talk about what the caterpillar is doing (e.g., he is eating strawberries) and what he did (e.g., he ate pears)
Story Grammar
- Retell the story by using the words “beginning, middle, end”
- Talk about the sequence of the story using the days of the week, numbers, and food items.
- Make predictions during the story about what could happen next.
You could apply these suggestions to tons of different books and brainstorm some ideas of your own! Next time you read with your child, consider using some shared reading strategies for an interactive reading experience! Have fun!
