Suggestions
for early development of listening
and reading skills through books:
When introducing books to young children, choose
short books with many colorful pictures. Read the selected book to your child as a bedtime
story or during a quiet time. Then leave the book in a place where he/she can look at it
on his/her own during a quiet time (naptime? Before dinner? In the car?).
If your child particularly likes one of the short
books, encourage him/her to tell you the story or you read part of the story
and leave out some of the familiar parts so that you can tell part of the story.
Remember when you read aloud, you should put personality
into what you read. If the book has several characters, change your voice for each one.
Really emphasize noises in the book and try to make your voice sound like
the noise ("OOOOOO went the wind"). Your child will enjoy helping with the
noises, which will also assist him/her with learning to say sounds for articulation
skills.
Ask a few simple questions as you read. If the book
says, "Someone was knocking on the door!", turn to your child and say "Who
do you think it was?" or "What do you think they wanted?". Good questions
to ask include: "What would you do?" or "How do you think she felt?"
If your child doesn’t answer, you tell what your answer would be. This will assist
with the ability to "predict" which is helpful in the development of reading.
As your child shows an interest in books, let
him/her help to select the books at the library or store. Explain to him/her how to take
care of books, so the books can be enjoyed for a long time.
Gradually introduce your child to books that have
more words in them. Longer books may have to be read in two bed-time sessions, one night
and the next. On the second night, be sure to review the first part of the story quickly
in your own words or ask your child questions to see if he/she remembers what the story is
about.
As certain books become favorites, ask your child
to tell you the story, by looking at the pictures and turning the pages. Listen for
increasing detail and encourage complete sentences. If your child says "Boy
jumping", you expand the sentence by saying "The boy is jumping", using a
tone of voice which indicates that you are not correcting but agreeing with
what he/she has said.
As he/she improves in his/her re-telling of the
stories, you can assist him/her with longer sentences by cuing words. To cue
a word, you say only the first sound, such as "th" for "the",
"i" for "is", or "ah" for "on". For example, if
your child was learning a new preposition and you asked, "Where is the apple?"
you could cue him/her by saying "ah" with an expression of expectation on
your face and hopefully your child would say "on the table".
