Speech . Language . Feeding .

7 Tips for Reading With Children

Reading with children … we all know it is important, but how do we do it?! Find out our top 7 tips for reading with children in this post. Three…

Reading with children … we all know it is important, but how do we do it?! Find out our top 7 tips for reading with children in this post.

Three Roads Therapy LLC is an Amazon Affiliate. This post contains Affiliate links. If you make a purchase from the links provided, we may earn a small commission, at no additional charge to you. Please read our full Affiliate Disclosure statement.

Hi, Chelsea here! I am a pediatric speech-language pathologist (fancy name for a speech therapist). I have been working with young children who are learning to talk since 2015. If I could pick any single topic or thing to do in therapy, with any kid, it would be reading.

I provide seven strategies for supporting language skills through reading as well as some book suggestions to help guide parents:

  1. Consistent Time
  2. Keep Books Readily Available
  3. Make it Fun Not Forced
  4. You Don’t Have to Read it All
  5. Keep Reading to Fluent (Older) Readers
  6. Discuss, but Don’t Test
  7. Have Fun

Some of the content is taken directly from the soon to be published EBook on early language acquisition. If you are wanting more information on supporting language skills for young children (0-3), watch for the ebook to launch! 

Why is Reading So Important

I think we all know the reasons why reading to infants and young children are important. Exposure to more words and sentence structures help increase language skills, reading with an adult routinely builds interaction and connection, and building a joy for reading will encourage your children to read for life, just to name a few. 

It is also important to read to older children who can read by themselves. This strengthens parent-child connection, provides a context for discussions, and continues to promote the joy of reading. 

Taking time to read can be challenging to work into our busy lives, but if you do nothing else to support your child’s language skills, I would say this is the most important! You may find a consistent time when your child is interested in books. For some, this may be morning cuddle time upon waking, for others it might be right before bed. Or anytime in between! 

Have books out and available for your child to select at any point in the day. You may want to pick board or cloth books until your child is old enough to understand how to properly care for paper page books. Save these for special, supervised, reading times. 

If you have older children, have them read to or with the younger ones. If your child is not interested, don’t push it. Try again later. Again, we want reading to be fun not forced.

Reading with Babies

Pick short, fun, and engaging books. Books with sounds, textures, or other manipulatives are a great place to start. Allow them to hold the book and engage with it. Don’t focus on reading all the words, all the pages, or even reading it in order. It’s OK to just name the pictures, jump around, end early, or linger on one page for the whole time.

Another great topic I cover for babies is Starting Solid Foods. Check out Why Infants Don’t Need Baby Food When Starting Solid Food or Help! My Baby Doesn’t Like Solid Food for more on this topic!

Reading with Toddlers

Continue to let them lead. They may pick the same books repeatedly, and that’s OK! Try a book rotation where you only keep certain ones out and others away and swap them every few weeks to keep them engaged (and prevent you from going crazy reading the same book 3,000 times in a week). 

Books with manipulatives are still a good option at this age, but you may also be able to start introducing slightly longer books with a basic story line. 

Books with rhyming, alliteration, or repeated parts that build are good options. Similarly to reading with infants, you don’t have to read the book from start to finish. You may read it in parts, out of order, or just discuss the pictures. Keep it fun not forced at this stage.

Also, don’t think that if your toddler isn’t right there with you they aren’t listening – they may go off and play blocks or jump around while you read but they are likely still listening! When they are engaged, try pointing to the words to model the print concepts (e.g. we read left to write, the letters on the page make the words we say). 

Script for Reading with Toddlers

To help demonstrate how this may look in “real life”, I have provided a script below:

Reader: “You picked Brown Bear Brown Bear”

Child: ripping book from reader’s hands, opens to partway through

Reader: *start on their selected page* “I see a yellow duck looking at me… yellow duck yellow duck what do you see?” *let child turn the page*

Reader: “I see a __” *wait*

Child: “Horse”

Reader: “Blue horse looking at me” *wait*

Child: “Blue horse blue horse”

Reader: “What do you see?”… “I see a white dog *incorrect* looking at me”

Child: “Not white dog!”

Reader: “Not white dog? … I wonder what it is”

Child: “Frog”

Reader: “Oh yes, green frog… ribbit, ribbit”

Child: “Ribbit” pretends to be a frog around the room

Reader: “Green frog green frog what do you see?…I see a” *wait, show picture to child across the room*

Child: “Cat… meow meow”

Reader: “Purple cat… meow, meow”

Why This Works

Some strategies used by the reader in the example above:

  1. Does not read the book in full, rather follows the child’s lead
  2. Allows the child to participate by using a “fill – in – the – blank”
  3. “Oops” – says the wrong name on purpose to be silly, engaging, and allows the child to correct the reader
  4. Expansion and extension of the child’s word(s) into longer sentences
  5. Models animal sounds along with names and colors
  6. Allows the child to get up and play during the book

Reading with Older Children

Allow them to select books. It is a good idea to have a home library or take them to the library and allow them to choose. Try to encourage diversity in what you read to them and maybe pick some that are at a higher reading level than what they could read on their own. When you do this, you are likely choosing books with vocabularies they understand but can’t quite read on their own. The content of the books will also encourage great conversations. Use open-ended questions when discussing books with them to increase critical thinking skills, but please don’t make it a test or they won’t want to keep reading with you! Keep it light and engaging but not testing. 

Real Books 

A point of discussion I have with many parents concerns reading on a tablet or kindle. While these are options for adults and maybe even adolescent children, this should be avoided in younger children, especially infants and toddlers. We all know screen time is not ideal for young children (and really should be limited for older children and adults too). 

It negatively impacts sensory experiences and thus the development of the sensory system. Additionally, when we read on a device, we have different reading patterns (e.g. reading faster, skimming, less retention) and thus removing some of the main purposes of reading. Another reason I don’t recommend this (and why I rarely read books on a device) is that we remove the manipulation of the actual book. The feeling of a book in my hands brings a lot of joy. Manipulating the pages and engaging with the pictures and the words teaches print concepts and keeps children more engaged for a longer time. 

Access to Books

While having a robust home library is a wonderful tool, it can be quite expensive to build one. Here are a few tips:

  1. Ask for books instead of cards at a baby shower
  2. Ask for books for your child’s gifts. You can create wish lists to help ensure you get the ones you specifically want.
  3. Visit your local library, often.
  4. If you have a child under 5 years, see if the Dolly Parton Imagination Library is available in your area. This program sends frequent free books in the mail. https://imaginationlibrary.com/
  5. Do book swaps with friends and family.

Book List 

I could have a list of hundreds of books, but I’ve listed my top 10 favorites for ages 0-4 years. I did not go past 4 years because I tried to keep it relevant to what I’m reading in my own home.

There are tons of book lists out there for older children, if you need more suggestions! I separated the books by approximate age ranges, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be read at other ages. 

There is a printable version of this book list in our Resource Library If you haven’t already, make sure you subscribe to our FREE resource library, by providing your email address. We will send you the password that unlocks a ton of free resources!! New ones will be added regularly. 

0-12 months

12-24 months

2-4 years 

Be sure to subscribe to our Resource Library which includes a free weekly newsletter as well! We will share in the newsletter when our Language Development ebook is available!

References:

Language Acquisition ebook. Three Roads Therapy LLC. Publication Pending.  

Mackenzie, Sarah. (2018). The Read Aloud Family: Make Meaningful and Lasting Connections With Your Kids. 

Graphic: Downloaded from Canva. By: Vlada Karpovich from Pexels.

Pintrest Images: Lina Kiavaka from Pexels; terimakasih0 from Pixabay; Yan Krukau from Pexels; Gabriella S. Csapo from Corelens; Kindel Media from Pexels. Not original images from Three Roads Therapy LLC.

Information Disclaimer

The content, images, materials, and information provided on this website is only intended to be general summary information to the public. It is not intended to take the place of either the written law or regulations. It should not be viewed as medical, financial, legal, or professional advice of any sort. We will do our best to confirm the accuracy of all information that appears on our website but cannot guarantee accuracy, reliability, or timeliness. All recommendations are made without guarantee or warranty. We make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.

We cannot predict and do not guarantee that you will attain a particular result from the information provided in or through this website, and you accept and understand that results differ for each individual. Each individual’s results depend on his or her unique background, traits, dedication, desire, motivation, resources, actions, and many other factors. You fully agree that there are no guarantees as to the specific outcome or results that you can expect from using the information you receive on or through this website.