Encouraging Ways to Read to Your Kids
The way parents read to their kids contributes a world to the kid’s childhood and to their developing interest in reading books. People say the time parents spend with their children reading to them shouldn’t only be about reading. This quality time between a parent and child must be about sparking a conversation so that the session becomes more interactive, fun and encouraging for the child.
Answering the never-ending questions of children during a story about the pictures in it and the characters involved, helps develop the cognitive skills of the child. It also helps in preparing your kid for the social interactions in the real world. Come to think of it, it isn’t that difficult to involve your child in a conversation. These kids today, they’re a reservoir of questions. Just give them a hint and they’ll start firing one after another. Here’s how parents should read to their children so that it really means something.
Ask Questions on Illustrations
Children begin to add words to their vocabulary when they’re between 16 to 24 months of age. They pick easy words like “dog” and “tree”. While reading to your child, if you see a dog’s picture, ask your kid questions like “What is this?” and “What’s the color of this dog?” This adds new words to the knowledge base of kids, and soon you’ll hear the dog will become a brown dog.
Relating Story Plot to Real Life
If you’re reading a book about Susie going to the zoo or to a grocery store then try to engage your child in a conversation by reminding him/her when they went to the zoo or maybe to the grocery store. Doing this enables the young mind of a child to remember more of the vocabulary and also to understand what’s happening in the book.
Make Silly Childish Sounds
Imitating animal sounds or sounds of loud cars not just puts a smile on your child’s face seeing your childish side, but also familiarizes your child to these phonemes. These sounds help kids understand and identify things more clearly. Once they start recognizing these sounds they begin to make them as well which contributes to their speaking ability.
Ask Them to Predict
While reading to your kids, involve them in the plot of the story to see what they think might happen next. Ask questions like, “What do you think the cat will do after she has made a mess?” This is extremely important. Asking such questions or asking them to tell you what previously happened in the story develops comprehension.
Counting, Colors & Shapes
Learning to count the objects, identifying the colors and shapes is just as much important as learning to read. Math and reading are partners. While reading a number book, do ask your children questions like, “How many oranges are there in the basket?” Making your child count objects and identify shapes and colors broadens the horizon of their mental capabilities. They begin to know there’s more to reading than just following an animal or a character’s story.
There are so many ways in which a simple reading session with your child can be conducive to learning and increasing knowledge base. You can cuddle your kid in bed while reading to them to make them associate comfort with reading. You can run your finger over the line you’re reading so that the child knows that you’re supposed to read from left to right. All these small things that you do while reading to your kid helps make memories, and develops their interest in reading and their love of books.