You don’t always need to read the words in books. Looking at and talking about picture books is a great way to encourage your child to enjoy stories. If you speak another language at home, talk about the pictures and story in your own language.
Have fun sharing books with these tips
- Talk about the book’s cover and point out the title.
- Let your child hold the book and turn the pages.
- Encourage them to talk about the pictures.
- Use different voices for different characters. Add in sound effects like splashing in puddles, beeping car horns or animal sounds.
- When the story is finished, you could ask them if they liked it and if they had a favourite character.
- Make a den together, like a cloth over a table, with space for both of you to share. You can make your den part of the story – it could be a monster’s cave, a rocket ship, or a princess’ tower.
- Talk to your child about what you did as a child. Involve the whole family – grandparents may have stories to share from when they were growing up!
Did you know?
- Children who were read to regularly by their parents at age five performed better in maths, vocabulary and spelling tests at age 16 than those who were not helped in this way.
- Children often have a favourite story they want to hear again and again. This helps them to learn the word order and link the written word to the story – which are the first steps in learning to read!
