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PS - before starting this post - check out the Smarter Speech SLP Bookstore, for Speakmarks. Each Speakmark book has 72 Bookmarks to target all domains for speech and language (expressive language, receptive language, social language, phonological awareness, articulation, and even cognition).
Just use one bookmark each night during story time! There are speakmarks for toddlers, preschoolers, early elementary, mid-elementary, and late elementary.
There is a way to jump start your child’s language, and learning foundations, within a routine you already have.
Revamping the bedtime story!
These tips take a few more minutes of story time every night before bed. But it's well worth the effort.
1. Read slowly
This tip seems like common sense. But it’s the key to reading effectively. If you slow down, you are allowing your child to process so many things : vocabulary, grammar, intonation of voice, story structure, and plot. According to audiologists, children process slower than adults. It’s important to keep this in mind when talking and reading with them. If in doubt about how fast you are reading, record yourself, and compare the recording with what you heard on your last audiobook. Is your pace the same? Better yet – is it slower?
2. Have your child guess what new words mean.
If you see a new vocabulary word, make a note of it. Then once you are done with the paragraph, go back. “Hey Lily, do you know what the word “curious” means?” (Wait for a possible answer.) Then chime in. “It means “wanting to learn.” Or, “Neil, can you show me the horse? Point.” (Wait) “There it is.”
In this simple exercise, you are teaching new words. But you are also teaching a far more important skill – guessing what a word means based on context. This is a skill that a child will use for the rest of his / her reading life.
3. Bombard new words.
Once a new word is acquired, repeat it. There’s a reason why books like “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see?” are so popular. The more a child hears a word, the more likely it is that they will retain it.
The formal speech-language pathology term for repeating words is “bombardment.” When you bombard, you can repeat words three times.
For example – That monkey was curious. What a curious monkey. Curious means wanting to learn.” Or – for younger kids -- “It’s blue. See? Blue. Pretty Blue.”
4. Ask Wh Questions.
Answering wh – questions is a language milestone for children. So let’s target it! After every parargraph or couple of pages, do a quick recap by asking wh questions.
For toddlers, stick to “what” and “where” questions. For 2-3 year olds, start adding “who”. For 3-4 year olds, add “why”. And for 4-5 year olds, introduce “when.” Once a child is 5+ years old , pepper 1-2 of these questions each paragraph.
For example – if you just read about a mouse hiding in the box, you can ask. “who hid in the box?”, “where did the mouse hide?”, “why is he hiding?” “when did he hide?” and “what is the mouse doing?
If your child does not answer the questions – model the answers for them. For example – “Where is he hiding?” (Pause). “See? He’s hiding in the box.”
Or, if your child is stuck, you can resort to multiple choice. “Where is he hiding? (Pause). “Is he hiding in the box or on the train?” (Pause). “You’re right, he’s hiding in the box.”
5. Summarize
After you are done with a paragraph or two, or for toddlers, a page or two, stop. Then ask your child, “what happened?”You’d be surprised what you get as a response. And you’ll be teaching one of the most important reading comprehension and writing foundation skills- finding the main idea, and finding details to support it.
A good rule of thumb for answers is that the number of words a child can say at a time corresponds to their age. For example, a three year old should be able to say a three-word sentence.
And if your child is struggling to come up with a summary statement – then cue them by giving them two choices to pick from. For example, “Is the pig hiding in the house? Or is he hiding in the forest?”
6. Predict
Predicting is another reading comprehension skill. It helps children connect information throughout the book,and it works on hypothetical and creative thinking.
For younger kids, when you are rereading a book, you can ask this question before turning the page. “Then what?” For older kids, ask at the end of every chapter, or every couple of pages. “What do you think will happen next?”
7. Emphasize feelings
It’s never too late to develop your child’s empathy. It helps them make friends, get along well with other people, and just be nicer kids. Every chapter, or every few pages, ask your child how a character might be feeling. And ask them to point out how they identified the feeling.
E.g. – How is Annie feeling? You’re right, she’s sad. How do we know? Because she’s frowning.
For children older than five years, you can boost an important milestone called theory of mind or the ability to think about others. Ask, “what is she thinking?” or “why is she feeling angry?”
8. Emphasize target sounds.
Children develop sounds in a very specific sequence. And one of the strategies to ensure proper sound development is to overemphasize trouble phonemes. So, if you notice your child is a little late in getting her /l/ sound, point it out while reading. Stress the sound. Make It longer. And, just like with new vocabulary, bombard the target 3 times for maximum efficiency.
E.g. – for /l/ - “I lllllove you. He said I llllloove you. He lllllloves her.”
9. Retell
Once you have read the bedtime story, before the final tuck in, ask your child to retell the story in his / her words. “What happened?” is a good prompt. Then you can gently correct and shape the response.
It doesn’t have to be a detailed retell. Just a few sentences will do. But again, you are teaching your child to pick out the important details. You are teaching them how to make their own sentences grammatically correct. And you are essentially priming them to “write their own content, in a gentle, stress-free environment.
And, retelling stories with some prompting is a common core standard
for kindergarten!
10. Repeat!
Is your child reading the same book night after night? Are you sick of it?
Well - believe it or not - it’s actually beneficial to do all that rereading.
With rereading, your child is really cementing the words, the grammar structure, the rhythm, and the details of the book. It’s better, after all, for a child to really know 10 new words than kind of know 30 of them.
Wanting to bolster your child’s language is a great and important goal. Language is a foundation for your child’s academics and learning.
These tips may take some extra work. But the work will pay off! It will result in a more confident and more talkative child. And if you can do all that with a bedtime story – why not?
Pick one tip each night for the rest of the week. Rotate through each tip until you are comfortable. And watch your child's language blossom.
Happy Reading!
Disclaimer : Smarter Speech is a pediatric speech therapy / speech-language pathology practice for toddlers and children providing in-home and teletherapy services in and around Mountain View, CA and Los Gatos, CA. Smarter Speech Blog aims to provide free speech and language tips for parents educators and therapists. However, this post is not providing speech-language pathology services. This is general information, not speech -language pathology or speech therapy. This article does not assume or create a client – SLP relationship. The author is not liable for any losses or damages due to actions or failure to act based on the content in this article. If you need assistance with a child’s speech or language needs, please contact a speech-language pathologist in your area.
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