Making Reading Books More Meaningful
Are you ready for a week of guest posts? All of these guests were hand picked by me because each and every one of them has something incredible to offer. Kim from Little Stories is first up. I’m not sure how I found her… but I ‘m so glad I did (or maybe she found me 😉 ). She has a beautiful way of sharing speech and language development ideas. Take it away Kim…
Reading books certainly makes the shortlist of great learning activities, BUT in this video I explain five steps to make reading books even MORE meaningful, powerful, and engaging…
To follow-up this activity and encourage even more learning, try…
- Helping your child to act out the story with rubber ducks in the bath,
- Singing “Five Little Ducks” song, or
- Reading the follow-up books in the “Little Quack” series.
Have fun reading books with your child!
Kim is the woman behind the blog Little Stories… but that is not all. She is a licensed and certified speech-language pathologist with a passion for spreading the word about early speech and language development. Kim also offers Personal Consultations for parents and professionals.
Linked up at
There is so much comfort in being surrounded by books…the pleasure of reading them…they add to the touch and feel….hold the characters … the smell of the books….i could just spend days and days around and with them!!
Agreed!
This is a question for Kim if she happens to still be seeing the comments on this page:
I was really interested in this video – but also confused. I’ve been reading about dialogic reading where the emphasis seems to be more on asking open-ended questions and the child taking the lead. Your reading was very inspiring but I wonder whether you read books like this , plus also in the ‘dialogic reading’ style or whether you think one style has more advantages than the other.
Excellent question! My answer is that it depends on the child and the level of his or her language development. This style of reading works well for very young children or for children that sometimes have a hard time listening and engaging in stories due to their language level or other needs (ex: sensory). For older children or children who can easily sit and listen to stories, dialogic readings works well.
For my own daughter, who is still very young, we do both! She gets a ton out of reading books this way and learns new language concepts, but also is challenged to express her own ideas with the more open ended type of reading.
One last point, is that this style of reading can also work well in a group of children where they are at different levels or when you have a very specific concept you would like to teach directly.
Is that helpful?
Great video! Encouraging reading and linking reading with fun activities!
Love that series! Love this video! Thanks for sharing.
With all of your accompaning hand movements and vocal inflections, I can just imagine that a child would be eager to jump and yell “Iiiii did it!” while pumping their fists in the air throughout the day!
What a great video!
Props and theatrics make a story ‘real’ to children of all ages. A book like this one – repetitive, colorful, relateable – also has a positive message that even a young one can understand. With all of your accompaning hand movements and vocal inflections, I can just imagine that a child would be eager to jump and yell “Iiiii did it!” while pumping their fists in the air throughout the day!
Some children simply do not find looking at a book appealing, or are just not ‘there’ yet, developmentally. I love this approach, I think it is appropriate and enjoyable for all age levels and certainly is a step in the direction towards building a life-long love for literacy – thank you for sharing!