Reading books is a staple in our nightly routine. It's just something we have always done and always loved. In fact, reading for 20 minutes each night is the only homework assignment my kids receive on a regular basis. Research has shown that kids that read 20 minutes each day score higher on tests and are exposed to more vocabulary than those who don't. Children learn almost half of the words they are exposed to during shared book reading. A study in 2017 showed that children learn just as much from books read to them by their parents as they do from books read to them by a teacher.
As a therapist, when parents ask me what they can do at home to improve their child's language, I always say to play and to read. Reading exposes children to language rich experiences. Lots of new vocabulary, dialogue, social skills, letter names, letter sounds, and problem solving situations.... just to name a few.
To some of us, reading a book to our kids is something that comes easy. Our kids love reading and snuggling up with a good book. But for others, it's a battle. Either the child doesn't want to sit still long enough to read or the parent is a little intimidated about how to read to their child. But here is a little secret... to start your child's love for books, you don't have to always read the book. Simply let them hold the book, flip through the pages, look at the pictures, and talk about what you see. Eventually your child will have the attention span to enjoy an entire story, but if he or she is not there yet, it's ok!
I created a cheat sheet that will hopefully give you some useful tips and tricks to use while reading with your little ones! Included in the handout is information on book orientation, vocabulary, ideas to make reading fun, as well as information on asking and answering questions (with age appropriate suggestions). I hope you find this helpful. Happy Reading!!
You can download a copy of this FREE handout, here!
