Storytime
You’ve heard it over and over again: Reading to your
children is the best way to help them achieve academic success. This is because
reading stories to your children promotes vocabulary development, language
growth, and the love of reading, all of which are necessary for school
success. But are some books better than
others? An article titled “Enhancing
Emerging Literacy in a Language Preschool” (Watson, Layton, Pierce, Abraham,
1994) outlines characteristics to look for when choosing a book to share with
your child.
First, select books that use interesting language features
such as rhythm and rhyme. Of course, Dr. Seuss’ stories are well known for
their interesting language patterns, but there are others that are just as
engaging such as Sandra Boynton’s “Horns to Toes,” Bill Martin, Jr.’s “Brown Bear, Brown Bear,”
and Eric Carle’s “Very Hungry Caterpillar.” Second, choose books that do not
overwhelm your child with an extensive amount of text. Books with limited text and pictures that
provide strong support for the story are usually best for helping a preschool
child maintain attention and process the information. Tomie De Paola’s “The Knight and the Dragon,”
Mo Willem’s Piggy and Elephant stories, and Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad
stories are good examples. Third, books that contain familiar themes and
repetition help to facilitate many emerging pre-literacy skills. These are stories like Bill Martin, Jr.’s
“Chicka Chicka Boom Boom,” Margaret Wise Brown’s “Goodnight Moon,” and Kevin
Lewis’ “Chugga Chugga Choo Choo.”
Of course, how you
read the story to your child matters, too. The interaction between you and your
child as you read the story can enhance your child’s comprehension of the
story. This can happen in a variety of ways. For instance, you can help your son
or daughter gain meaning by relating events in the story to real experiences
that your son or daughter has had. You
can have your child make predictions in the story by asking, “What do you think
will happen next?” You can also ask
questions about the story. The questions
you ask will depend on your child’s developmental level and can range from
asking your son or daughter to point to an item in a picture to higher level
questions such as, “Who is this story about?” or “Why is the firefly sad?” And,
finally, be sure to acknowledge and respond to your child’s comments about the
story. His or her interests may take you in a direction that you didn’t expect
and taking the time to discuss those interests will make the story that much
more meaningful.
