How should I read with my child?

Wondering how to read with your preschooler?

You can start reading with your children from as young as birth! Reading is amazing to help support your child develop their ability to talk and understand words, and eventually be able to read and spell those words later on.

But how should we be reading with our babies, toddlers, and preschoolers?

Introducing shared book reading!

Shared book reading is defined by The Hanen Centre as using books to encourage communication, conversation and positive interactions between you and your child. This might look like your child pointing at the pictures and telling you about what they can see, or even making up their own stories. We do this by adding new words and vocabulary to the story, letting your child read the book how they want to, letting them turn the pages, and waiting to give your child the opportunity to talk and use their voice about the story.

But how do we choose books that are going to help our kids?

The Hanen Centre recommends picking books based with the following features:

Repetitive books – repetitive language will help your child remember important words and sentences. Our favourites are “That’s not my”, “Brown bear, brown bear what do you see?” and “Where is the green sheep?”.
Homemade books – Collect photos from a particular memory and talk about the event as a story.
Simple stories with a main character or event – these types of stories have a clear start, middle and end. Our favourites are “The very hungry Caterpillar”, and “Za-Za’s baby brother”
Non-fiction books: books about animals, different jobs, foods, vehicles and items will all expose your child to new words.

If you want more info on shared book reading, you can check out this link from The Hanen Centre: http://www.hanen.org/Helpful-Info/Fun-Activities/Sharing-books-with-Preschoolers,-the-Hanen-Way.aspx

Written by Emily Baxter

Blossom Rural Director & Speech Pathologist (B.SP, CPSP)

"As a Speech Pathologist, I love working with rural families on their child’s literacy, speech and language skills. I opened Blossom Rural in January 2021 after noticing the lack of Speech Pathology services in my local Far Western NSW region. The number of rural children, living on properties and remote towns, who were not able to access regular Speech Pathology intervention without driving to a major capital city, was astounding. These were the families I had always hoped to work alongside and provide an accessible service to. I grew up in Broken Hill before heading to Adelaide for Boarding School at 12 years of age followed by university. The healthcare gap between country and city was very obvious!"

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