”Reading aloud with children is known to be the single most important activity for building the knowledge and skills they will eventually require for learning to read.” - Marilyn Jager Adams
Storybooks open up the whole world of reading to a child. Researchers have shown that reading stories with your children helps them at many levels. Stories introduce children to rare words and more complex sentences. Also, children learn how stories are constructed by listening to them. This lays the foundation for better reading comprehension in later years.
Stories also introduce concepts to children that go beyond the present and extend their knowledge of the world. Parents can use stories as a starting point for extended conversations with their children. Parents can also introduce abstract concepts easily by providing a context for the child. For example, concepts such as sharing and kindness can sometimes be better explained by relating them to a story.
The Storybook Unit of Project EASE (Early Access to Success in Education) by Dr. Gail Jordan suggests selecting books with “strong central characters, well-defined goals, interesting conflict between characters, and story problems that generate extended conversations between parent and child”. Here are some additional tips on selecting books for your children:
- Select stories with plots and characters that your child can relate to (e.g., if your child likes trains, maybe he/she will like Thomas the Tank Engine stories).
- Choose a subject and genre that is interesting for your child. This is even more important if you are starting at a later age, since you are trying to replace another activity with reading time.
- Select books by the reading level and the interest of your child. While you can use age as a starting point, let your child decide what he/she would like to read. Let the older children choose their own books in a bookstore.
Once you find the books that your children enjoy, reading to them will become one of the best times you spend with them as a parent. Best of all, your children will come to you with books in their hands and smiles on their faces!
Also visit the PicabooLane store to purchase these books or find more storybooks.
This post is based on the Project EASE Storybook Unit. Other related posts:
Impact of Early Childhood Reading and Conversation
Words Everywhere – Vocabulary for Children
