To succeed at school, and in life, it’s important that kids have a strong core knowledge of literature, including culturally significant stories and fables. Access to this information is a great social leveler, and particularly benefits children who may not otherwise have ready access to it.
We have drawn our selection of texts from those recommended in the Core Knowledge Sequence, a free knowledge-based curriculum that aims to build strong foundations for later learning, including knowledge known by most adults and taken for granted by literate writers and speakers.
For each tale, we have tracked down a free, quality audio recording, including some of the now ancient recordings we listened to as youngsters ourselves! To make the list as accessible for as many people as possible, we looked for audio-recordings hosted on YouTube (rather than, say, a particular publisher’s website or podcast platform).
These stories are intended to complement – not replace – evidence-based phonics-based materials – designed to teach young school-aged children to read. Most are suitable for children with language disorders, dyslexia, and other communication difficulties.
In addition to this list, we recommend that children be exposed to lots of non-fiction, including science, history, art and music books.
- Too many stories, not enough facts? Free tips and resources to boost your child’s knowledge and reading comprehension skills
- Read non-fiction books to your late talkers and preschoolers: here’s why
- Is your child struggling to read? Here’s what works
- Dyslexia vs Developmental Language Disorder: same or different, and what do we need to know about their relationship?
Banter Speech & Language is owned and managed by David Kinnane, a Hanen- and LSVT LOUD-certified speech-language pathologist with post-graduate training in the PreLit early literacy preparation program by MultiLit, the Spalding Method for literacy, the Lidcombe and Camperdown Programs for stuttering, and Voicecraft for voice disorders. David is also a Certified PESL Instructor for accent modification.
David holds a Master of Speech Language Pathology from the University of Sydney, where he was a Dean’s Scholar. David is a Practising Member of Speech Pathology Australia and a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist (CPSP). David is a part-time Associate Lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney’s Graduate School of Health. David sits on Speech Pathology Australia’s Ethics Board and Professional Standards Advisory Committee.