How reading helps speech and language development
Now your child is reaching the age when they can participate in reading and telling stories, reading books together will help them develop their vocabulary and language skills. But you can also looks for words to read during your everyday activities such as shopping.
Reading promotes language learning
The lessons and activities you have completed so far in the Let’s Listen and Talk Preschool Programme have provided the basis for your child’s ability to understand you and to tell you a story as you enjoy books together. You have helped your child develop their listening skills and their vocabulary. These will be combined when your child begins to learn to read. Now you want to continue working with your child on expanding and refining their reading skills.
Getting the most from reading books
If your child is very young, you can still adapt this information to their level. You can encourage your child to use their voice as they look at books with you. If you find books with rhyming words, you might find that your child copies the intonation they hear as you read to them. And don’t forget about experience books – as we have discussed in previous lessons. The earlier you begin to make them, the more you and your child will have to look at together.
When you and your preschooler first begin to look at books together, you will read or tell the story to your child. They will listen, developing their auditory learning skills. Books provide the perfect opportunity for helping your child with auditory learning. After you and your preschooler have read a book together a few times, you have the opportunity to ask some questions. You might just look at the pictures and ask, “Where is the duck?” “Can you find the boy?” Your child will only be listening to your voice as you ask these questions. Over time, by listening alone, they will understand you.
Please note: There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to sit and read to your child. Sometimes you may want to sit beside your child or have them on your lap. Be sure to speak close to the microphone of your child’s hearing aid or cochlear implant processor when you sit like this. Sometimes you might want your child to see your face and lips as you read and talk about the story together. The most important thing is that you both enjoy and value this time together. It is very precious!
Take a tip!
Remember to note down your child’s progress. Information on receptive language (what your child understands) and expressive language (what they say) are important as your child becomes older. Be sure to jot down all the language your child knows – you can add to that language as you read together and find new words. As you introduce new words, try to use them in everyday conversation as much as possible. As you well know, the best way to teach your child language is to keep talking, talking, talking!
Most children love to hear a story over and over until they are able to tell it themselves with only a few words or prompts from you. You can encourage your child to reach this level by giving them the opportunity to finish a sentence in the book. For example, “… and the moon is behind the _____.” Can your child say the word? If not, ‘model’ the word by saying it for them and then repeat the sentence, again leaving out the last word. Pause just briefly. If your cannot “fill in the blank,” do it for them and continue with the story.
You can also encourage your child to tell you the story. Listen to the words they use. Is your child using all the nouns (‘object’ words)? What about verbs (‘doing’ words)? Help your child add a few more words each time they tell you the story. And, as always, tell your child what a great job they are doing.
Reading words during everyday routines
How can you help your child develop literacy?
Print is all around us! You want your child to begin to associate printed words with spoken language. A simple and enjoyable way to start your child on the road to literacy is to point out their name on envelopes, clothing labels – anything and everything with their name on it. The more often you do this, the sooner your child will begin to associate print with something important such as their name!
Take advantage of the print that is already in your home and community. You can read street signs and labels to her. As you drive to the supermarket, point out traffic and street signs. “Stop. The sign says ‘Stop.’ We need to stop now.” You can go for a walk and look at your street sign. “Prospect Road. We live on Prospect Road.”
Does your child have a favourite place to eat? Show them the sign while you say the name. Then look at the menu together. Is there a picture of a pizza or of a hamburger? Show it to your child as you point to and say the word. “You want pizza.” Point to the word as you say it, “Pizza.” It won’t be long before your child begins to understand that letters have meaning.
Going shopping
Your child has probably watched you make your daily or weekly shopping list. They have probably seen you check things off, too, after putting items in your shopping basket or trolley. Your child will feel very important if they makes a shopping list and goes to the shop with you:
- Choose four or five items that you will buy together. Find (e.g. from a magazine) or sketch a picture of each of these items. Then get your pencil and two pieces of paper. Show your child the pictures, pausing for a second as you identify the items: “We need milk… apples… bananas… and cereal. Let’s make a list.”
- On your child’s paper, stick or sketch a picture of each item. Beside the picture, write the word. Write your list, too. Your child cannot read the words yet, but they know that this paper will tell you what you need and with the pictures, your child can ‘help’ you.
- At the shop let her carry her list. Show her the picture of the milk and the word ‘milk’ on your list. Say, “Let’s get the milk.” When you do, point to the word on the carton and then on your child’s list and yours. Say, “Milk. Here’s our milk.” If you cross items off your list, let your child do the same. Repeat this for the other items on your shopping lists.
- When you go to the produce section of the store, you might see the words ‘apples’ and ‘bananas’ near those items. Point to the word as you say, “Here are the apples.”
- Now you can take your purchases and go to the check out. Your child has had an important and meaningful lesson in pre-literacy!
Here is another suggestion. Let your child try to scribble or ‘write’ some of the printed words they see all around them. Provide large crayons, pencils and paper. No need for adult accuracy here – just let your child enjoy putting some print with a picture. Encourage them to write their name. Pre-writing is also part of the literacy process.
Any time is a good time for stories! And there are all sorts of ways you can make story time both effective for language learning – and fun!
Books and story time
While your child is quite young, story time may be short. Later, as your child grows and their attention span increases, story time will lengthen, too. Let your child choose books that they enjoy. It is common for preschoolers to enjoy reading familiar stories over and over again. Re-reading favourites helps to build familiarity with stories and later, printed words.
Try to make story time a time when you are free as possible from other cares or distraction, so it is a quiet time. Parents often enjoy reading regularly to their children before going to sleep at night and at naptime. Leave your child’s hearing aids or cochlear implants on during story time so that they will benefit from hearing the sounds of speech. Remember, at first it is the special joy of sharing time with you that will make the story time important to your child. Later your child’s feelings about books will be linked with memories of close and loving moments with you.
The first books you may want to share with your child are likely to be picture books that have just a single picture on each page (no print). These will help your child begin to associate pictures with real objects, people and places. When reading picture books you can say things like, “Here is a picture of a car. It’s a car. Where is our car? See. There’s our car. We have a car, too.” Soon the word ‘car’ will become a part of your child’s vocabulary and after a while they will begin saying this new word when they show you the picture.
Picture books may also have a particular theme and contain pictures with related ideas and concepts. Such books might deal with food, toys, articles of clothing, or means of transportation. These are fun, too. Make sure you are saying more than just the word (name of the picture). Use the word in simple, natural phrases to make it more natural. For example, for a picture of a car, as noted above, you could say, “Oh, it’s a car” ; “Our car says beep-beep!”; “I wonder where they are going in the car?”; “We go to grandpa’s and grandma’s house in our car”.
Story books, of course, contain more than pictures – they tell a story. Most contain written language, although in some, the pictures alone can “tell” the story. For the child who is just beginning to learn language, or for the child looking at a book by themselves, the pictures are the story. Sharing storybooks with your child will be an exciting experience for both of you, and open a wide new world to her.
Your child might also enjoy reading ‘predictable’ books with you. These are stories that youngsters almost ‘read themselves’ by their rhythm or rhyme. Knowing what comes next will help your child feel more relaxed and in control of the reading process.
Of course, there will be good books with delightful, interesting pictures that both you and your child will enjoy, but whose written language is too advanced. In using these books, tell the story in your own words, primarily using vocabulary that your child knows.
How to tell a story
Remember, it is what you put into the story that will make it come alive! Your enjoyment, your enthusiasm, and your sense of adventure – these will stimulate your child’s interest.
After you have decided on a book to read to your child, prepare to tell the story. If you know that the story is too long for your child’s attention span, go through the book and choose the pictures you will talk about. Then flip to the picture you are describing and enjoy it with your child. You might paper clip pages together to make ‘turning the page’ easy.
Make a note:
My child’s favourite book is: __________________________________________________________
Vocabulary to work on as we read: _______________________________________________________
If your child is still fairly young, you may only be able to hold their interest for a short time. It is a good idea then to select only three or four pictures that illustrate the main points. Think in advance about what you will say about each picture. Start to turn the page, then stop. Look at your child and ask, “Ohhhh! What do you think will happen now?”
Give your child a moment to tell you what they think. This is the time for conversation. Maybe your child already knows and wants to tell you. Maybe they just want you to turn the page. Let your child express themselves before you continue with the story.
Let’s use the “The Three Little Kittens” story as an example of how you might introduce and share books with your child. Initially your language will be simple. You might decide beforehand to use language such as: “Here are three little kittens.” “See their mittens.” “The kittens are crying.” “Their mittens are dirty.” “Now the mittens are clean!” “The kittens are happy.”
You are ready to tell the story! Sit beside your little one so that both of you can look at the book together; and so that she can look up at you for more information. Now, enthusiastically say something about the book. “Here’s a book” or “Let’s read a book.” You might then look at the picture on the cover and say, “See the kittens.”
Continue to hold the book as you tell the story. (Your child’s turn to hold the book comes later.) Let your child look at the picture and, of course, if they look up at you, talk about it.
Before your preschooler loses interest, turn to the next page. “The kitten is playing.” Go through the three or four pictures you have marked, as you provide the appropriate language. Don’t forget to say, “Turn the page!”
It’s your child’s turn now. When you have finished reading the ‘story’ to your child, give the book to your child. Let your child look at it and enjoy it. Don’t rush them – let them take their time to enjoy the book in their own way. Be ready to comment on a picture whenever you can. If your child is just beginning to learn language, they may want to ‘babble’ or just vocalise as they ‘read.’ Be a good listener!
When you ‘read’ a story, use vocabulary that your child knows. This makes them comfortable with the experience. But as your child becomes familiar with the story and as their interest grows, add new words. When your child understands each new word, help them express that word when they talk to you about the story or tell that story back to you.
Just as you need to keep up with your child’s growing language, so you will need to keep pace with their growing, changing needs as you read to them. After a while, your child’s attention span will lengthen. Then you can use more pictures and more advanced language. If your child is using a formal sign language, you will need to learn the signs used in your child’s favourite stories, too.
In sharing storybooks with your child, you are the star, the producer and the director! It is the enthusiasm that you put into your voice and your facial expression as you tell the story that will generate interest in your child. Create suspense! Make the story come alive! Stop and talk about the story in natural ways – e.g. “Why do you think the kitten is sad?”; “I wonder what’s going to happen next?” Even if your child is not yet able to understand or answer these questions, you are demonstrating important language for development. Leave a pause and then answer the question yourself – e.g. “I think she is sad because she can’t find her mummy. Let’s see.”
Reading together will help your child learn the concept of a story line. When we talk to each other, we often explain happenings in story form. We give details of the situation, the people, their expressions and events. Reading books will provide this experience of narrative: there is a story line and there are details. And, it’s fun to talk about them! As your child develops this sense of a story line, you will see them use it in their imaginative play and in the stories they tell you.
Using props
Occasionally you may wish to dramatise a story by using a small toy or other ‘prop.’ Props may help your child understand and may help maintain their interest.
For some of your child’s favourite stories, you could think about collecting props around the house to make a story bag or box. Find an old shoe box, write the name of the story on the box and decorate it with your child. Then collect ‘props’ from around the house (charity shops or car boot sales are also a good place to find ‘props’) and put them in the box, so you can use them when you read the story. So for example, for Goldilocks and the Three Bears, you could collect three bears of different sizes, a dolly to represent Goldilocks, three plastic bowls, three spoons, three toy chairs, etc. Once you have read the story, pull out the box and ‘explore’ it together. You can then re-tell the story to each other using the props. This is a great way for your child to practise understanding language, using language, speech, auditory memory, and sequencing. But most of all it is fun and it will sustain their interest and motivation in books and storytelling.
Your child and books
Reading with your child is an important part of their cognitive growth. Children need to learn to match real objects to pictures. Books help develop this skill. A story helps develop sequencing skills. Your child will learn the concept of cause and effect, and how to follow events in a story. This leads to the ability to predict: “What will happen next?”
If you are reading a story about a cat that disappeared, and you have read that the cat is white and a white shirt is under the bed, will your child be able to infer that the cat is sitting on the shirt under the bed? Help your child to reach conclusions based on information. This ability will be important for all their future studies.
Consider your child’s attention span. Talk to them about the story you’ve shared. And enjoy reading the same story over and over again as long as your child is interested. Using print that you or your child put down on paper encourage your child to tell her own stories.
As your child is developing their language system, an informal, story-based approach is a good way to develop their early reading skills. This includes an interest in print, an understanding of stories and an awareness of how spoken language and print are connected.
As your child grows, books will provide wonderful chances to increase their language skills, their knowledge about the world, and their imagination. Help your child to learn now that books are marvellous friends! A love of books is a wonderful gift to give your child.
Using experience books
In previous lessons we talked about making experience books. Have you made some yet? If not, this is the time to begin. You can think of many experiences that your child enjoys, and those are the perfect topics for books for them. As you and your child look at one of these books together, there are many opportunities to practise speech sounds.
/B/ is a sound that comes early in speech development. Possibly you have an experience book about mealtimes. Talk about wearing a ‘bib’, using a ‘bowl’, and eating a ‘banana’. The peel goes in the ‘bin’. Use the words in conversation about the pictures and encourage your child to ‘tell’ you about the photos. Children love seeing themselves and people they know in their books, so this is a great way to keep their attention while you are practising their speech skills at the same time.
