Picture books can open a new world of adventures, cultures and experiences. Here you’ll find reading tips for parents that help your child’s language development at home.
Whether you’re discovering the peril of knights fighting dragons, or hoping each zoo animal finds their way home, sharing books can offer a moment to connect, interact and model language with your child.
Just like the genres of picture books are far and wide, so are the interactions and book experiences you have with your child.
Some children prefer to act out parts of the story while others prefer it to be a relaxing and calming moment before bed. Sharing books is a unique experience for each family.
7 Reading Tips for Parents
Related Page: Speech and Sip’s Book Club
Here are some reading tips for parents that help your child’s language development:
1. Consider your Child’s Regulation and Sensory Needs
Let’s start sharing books by thinking about your child’s regulation and sensory needs. Sitting still at the table or during carpet time doesn’t work for everyone. For some children, focusing on sitting still can mean that there’s less focus on the interaction and the book itself.
- Listen and watch your child.
- – Are they moving because it helps their engagement and interaction with you?
- – Are they fidgeting because it helps them with listening to the story?
Allow your child to move and/or take movement breaks when you’re sharing books. Maybe you could act out searching for treasure like the Pirates in your story and find a chest full of fidget toys. Your child can then decide if they want to keep their fidget toy, swap it or try a new one.
- If your child does prefer to sit, think about where you’re sitting.
- – Is it next to them on the couch?
- – Do they prefer to be lying down or over a bean bag while listening?
- Considering your child’s regulation, movement and sensory needs helps with modifying your communication style and the focus of your time together.
- – Does your child prefer you to use a softer voice?
- – Do they like it when you use different types of voices?
- – Do they want to act out a particular character too?
Occupational Therapists (OTs) have a wealth of knowledge when it comes to children’s regulation and sensory needs. Chatting with your local OT may help you gain a better understanding of your child’s sensory needs and strategies that may help them across their day.
2. Follow Your Child’s Interests and Lead
Related Post: Child Led Play and Following Your Child’s Lead
Let’s follow your child’s lead and explore their interests. This helps you focus on building strong connections and your child’s language development in a natural setting.
- Following your child’s lead during story time might look like this:
- – Your child choosing the picture books
- – Your child holding it and turning the pages
- – Your child choosing where you share the picture books
- – Going at your child’s pace
- – Being flexible
- – Looking and talking about 1 particular page, a few pages, skipping some pages or looking at the whole book
- – Simplifying the story and/or talking about the pictures
What to do if your child isn’t interested in sharing books?
If your child isn’t interested in picture books, that’s okay! Take the pressure off by following their lead. This includes getting on their level, listening, acknowledging their communication and joining them with their interests.
- You could:
- – Hide pictures of their favourite things around your house and go on a treasure hunt
- – Make a book with your child’s favourite things, people and places. Let your child help you with creating the book by choosing the pictures and glueing them in
- – Look and talk about family photos and videos
- – Join your child when they’re watching their favourite TV show
- – Find a book about their favourite TV show
3. Modelling Language at Your Child’s Level
Related Post: 2 Ways to Learn and Develop Language
Another reading tips for parents is to meet your child at their language level by modelling words, scripts or phrases that are meaningful to them. For example, if your child is using 2-word combinations, model 2-3 word phrases. If your child is a gestalt language processor (i.e., processes language chunks of language), model more mitigable gestalts.
- Sharing books offers ample opportunities to model language naturally and spontaneously. Rather than reading the picture books word for word, look at the pictures and make comments.
- Consider where you’re child is on their language development journey, for example:
- – Are they pointing and babbling?
- – Are they using 2-word phrases?
- – Are they repeating scripts?
- – Are they using original phrases?
4. Acknowledge and Respond to Your Child’s Communication
Sharing books can be a space to listen to your child and acknowledge their communication. This lets them know that what they’re saying is valued. It helps with their confidence and language development.
- Here are some examples:
- – If your child points to a picture, you could label and talk about it. You could say “dog” or “it’s a dog”
- – If your child is a gestalt language processor and says a script you don’t understand, listen and acknowledge it by nodding or saying “yeah” or repeating it back to them
- – If your child is using spontaneous and flexible single words and 2-word phrases, expand their phrase, such as if your child says “dog”, you could model “yes, a dog is running”
Even if you have no idea what your child is saying, respond to their communication and try to find out what they’re saying.
5. Acknowledge the Text
Letters and written words have meaning as they represent our spoken words. Drawing attention to the print in picture books helps children develop an awareness that the squiggles on the page tell the story. This is a helpful reading tips for parents before your child learns to read.
It can introduce your child to the concept of print being read left-to-right, top-to-bottom and the book being read front to back (in English). Talking about the text can offer an introduction to children to recognise patterns, letters and words.
- For example, you could:
- – Point to the text and say “These letters tell us the story”
- – Point to the title while saying it
- – Talk about the front and/or back of the picture books
- – Say “Let’s turn the page”
- – Point to the large or exciting print (e.g., text that is in different colours, fonts or sizes)
- – Find the first letter of your child’s name in the book
6. Questions and “I wonder…” Statements
Some questions are easier to answer than others. Marion Bank (Developmental Psychologist) and her team developed a framework that moves from simple concrete questions to more abstract questions. These levels are known as Blank’s Levels of Questioning.
Another reading tips for parents is to be mindful of not asking too many questions. This can increase the demand stifling interactions and enjoyment, which may impact their language development.
It can make the interaction feel like a test. Instead, try modelling language by making comments (find some examples below).
Gestalt Language Processors & Questions
Related Post: Gestalt Language Processing
If your child is a Gestalt Language Processor, be mindful that asking them questions before Stage 4 in Natural Language Acquisition is NOT appropriate. Your child needs original flexible language (Stage 3/4) to be in a better position to respond to questions in an authentic way rather than using rote-learned responses.
Try starting your sentences with “I wonder…” or “I’m thinking about…”. Comment about what’s happening in the story, what you think might happen next, and what you can see.
- Here are some examples:
- Linked with: June 2023 Book Club Pick
- “They’re playing in the water”
- “I think Sofia loves her teddy bear”
- “I wonder if they’ll build a sandcastle”
- Linked with: November 2023 Book Club Pick
- “I found the sleepy sheep”
- “This sheep is drinking tea”
- “It’s a funny sheep”
7. Repeating
Embrace repeating the same picture books is a great reading tips for parents. Repetition helps with predictability and knowing what to expect (i.e. what will happen next). It allows your child to become familiar with the pictures, characters and story.
Even if you’re looking at the same book, the interaction and experience may be slightly different. Once your child is familiar with the book, you may shift your focus to their language development. This could be the characters in the book or modelling language at their level.
This post listed 7 reading tips for parents when sharing books and how they support your child’s language development.
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