It might sound strange, but I am a big believer in the magic of shared book reading. You see, speech pathologists love books and know that they have so many benefits when it comes to helping your child develop essential communication and language skills.
But the magic extends so much further than skill development. When we share a story with our child, we connect with them, we explore new worlds with them, we go on adventures together and we tap into our imaginations. Sounds magical, and you too can experience this magic with a few helpful tips on how to get the most out of shared story time with your child.
Books and the Magic of Skill Building
Before we get into how you can get the most out of shared story time with your child, let’s take a look at the skills your child can develop when we read and share stories with them (particularly from a young age).
When we share a story from a book, our own experiences, culture, history or perhaps even a song or nursery rhyme, we are encouraging our child’s development, imagination, understanding of emotions and strengthening our relationships.
Reading and sharing stories can also:
- Help your child build early literacy skills including recognising sounds, letters, words and sentences
- Help your child value books and learn how to hold them, understand that we read left to right, where the title of the book is, and what the pictures may tell us about the story
- Ignite your child’s imagination and stimulate their curiosity
- Help your child build their concentration skills, follow a narrative, and understand the structure of a story
- Help your child build an understanding of social and communication skills (ie. by looking at how the characters in the story interact, solve problems, their body language etc)
- Help your child grow their understanding of the difference between ‘real’ and ‘make-believe’ (ie. what is it about this story that tells us that it is make-believe or real?)
- Help your child understand that reading is a part of our every-day, and we can learn new information from books / texts
- Help your child understand emotions by looking at what the characters or people in the story may be feeling, and how the story made your child feel
- Help your child learn about the world and new concepts like diversity and inclusion
Getting the Most out of Shared Story Time with Your Child
It can be difficult for some families to find time to connect and enjoy sharing a story. But when you do integrate this magical moment into your daily routine, it is important to get the most out of the time spent.
Here are our favourite tips for maximising reading time with your child and help make it enjoyable as well as an awesome skill-building activity:
Get Comfy and Connect
Find a comfy spot on the couch or in bed and turn off any distractions like the TV. You want shared story time to be a time that you can focus on the connection with your child and help your child concentrate on the story.
Integrate Your Child’s Interests
Try to select books that your child is interested in. This is not always easy, particularly if you are tackling a home reader, but if you can integrate something your child is interested in, they will be more likely to engage and enjoy the time reading and learning together.
Pause for Predictions
If you are reading a book, before you dive in and start reading, help your child make simple predictions based on the title and the front cover. You can also flick through the story and discuss the pictures. Take turns ‘guessing’ what the story might be about. This is a valuable way to help your child use the pictures as predictors.
Ponder the Pictures
We know that pictures can tell a thousand words, so make sure you take time to talk about the illustrations on each page and what they might be telling you about the story. If your child is quite young, you can talk about the pictures on each page through labelling items, e.g. ‘A cow! Can you find another farm animal on the page?’. This helps your child learn new vocabulary.
If your child is a little bit older, you can encourage them to look at the images and describe what might be different to their world, i.e. ‘Does your house look like that child’s house? What is different or what is similar?’ This can introduce new concepts like diversity and difference. You can also ask your child how the characters look and what that might be telling us about their feelings, i.e ‘Do you think the girl is happy or sad? What tells you that she is feeling that way?’ Again, this helps to build your child’s vocabulary and understanding of emotions.
Help Relate the Story to Their Own Experiences
To help your child engage with and understand a story, you can relate it to their own experiences, e.g. ‘They are building sandcastles at the beach. What did we do at the beach last time we went?’. This will help your child connect with the story and build an understanding of what is happening.
Check for Comprehension
As you progress through the story ask what we call ‘Wh’ questions to determine if your child is following along and understands what is happening. For example, you could ask ‘What is happening?’ or ‘Where are they going?’ or ‘Who is going?’. This helps to build your child’s comprehension skills, understand the structure and sequence of the story, and further develop their vocabulary.
Sharing the Magic of Stories with Our Community
Sharing stories doesn’t just have to be confined to the home. We know that kids love story time at preschool and school, and we know that you and your child will love sharing stories in the splendour of nature.
As big fans of shared story time, A Growing Understanding offers special, complimentary play-group style events across four outdoor locations every month. These events encourage members of the Maitland, Lake Macquarie, Newcastle and Port Stephens communities to come together and experience the magic of shared story time in accessible and magical settings. We even contextualise the content of the books we read with fun craft activities, and our speech pathologists are on hand to answer any questions you may have about your child’s language and communication skill development.
Click the links to find out more and to join us at one of these amazing events:
Stories on the Sand
Stimulate the senses with the magic of stories, sand and the sound of the ocean.
Date: Every First Monday of the Month
Time: 9.30am – 10.30am
Location: Merewether Beach, Newcastle
Stories Under the Tree
Experience the magic of stories under the trees and have fun in the playground.
Date: Every Second Wednesday of the Month
Time: 1.30pm – 2.30pm
Location: Warner Park Playground, Warners Bay
Stories Under the Hangar
Let your child’s imagination take flight!
Date: Every Third Thursday of the Month
Time: 11.00am – 12.00 noon
Location: Fighter Beans Café at Fighterworld, Williamtown
Stories in the Garden
Experience the magic of stories among the flowers.
Date: Every Fourth Tuesday of the Month
Time: 9.30am – 10.30am
Location: Magic Garden at Maitland Park Playground, Maitland
There really is no better time to connect with your child and share a story. If you are looking for tips and hints on how to build your child’s reading skills, check out this blog, or join us at one of the above events to chat with our experienced speech pathologists.
