Using books is one of my favorite ways to improve language skills in children of all ages. You’re never too young or too old for a book! I love helping families target their child’s speech and language skills through literature. No materials are needed other than a favorite story or two.
First, it’s important to know that children do not need to hear a different story each day. Repetition in general is amazing for improving language skills, and books are no different. Trust me, you will get tired of reading the story long before your child gets tired of hearing it.
Today, we are going to talk about the best ways to use stories to improve expressive language skills. My first tip is to read the story on your child’s level. If your child is only speaking in one word utterances, don’t read full sentences. You can improvise the story to just 2 or 3 words at a time. You don’t even need to read the exact story! You can talk about the pictures instead. Depending on the child’s ability level, I sometimes just read “I see X” and describe the picture on the page. For example, during Brown Bear, Brown Bear, I will read, “I see bear”. “I see bird”. This simplifies the language to target the specific vocabulary words, in this example the animal names.
Another tip is to preview the pictures with your child before you read and familiarize them with the book and characters. If they’re at a higher reading level, you can preview new vocabulary words with them. After reading the story through, go back and point to target vocabulary items and see if your child can name them. During Brown Bear, Brown Bear I will flip back through the story, pointing at each animal. I pause to see if the child is able to name the animal. If not, I provide a model. If your child is working on verbs, you can address what the characters are doing, even if it’s not explicitly stated in the text.
After reading the story multiple times, your child may attempt to ‘read it’ along with you. Pause while reading a familiar word and wait for your child to produce the word themselves. This is a great way to produce some independent language.
After reading, I like the engage in some extension activities. This can be as simple as photo copying pages and printing the character pictures to make ‘puppets’. You can also hide these pictures around the house and have a game of hide and seek. No printer? Have the child draw their own version of a character in the story. This also helps to reinforce the vocabulary of the book. Working on adjectives? You can pick a common color in the story and find items around the house of the same color. There are so many ways to bring the book to life that require little to no additional effort. What are your favorite ways to read stories to your little ones?
Talk soon, Kim
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