Tips for Reading with Your Child
Reading to babies and toddlers
- Set aside at least one regularly scheduled time each day for reading.
- Select cloth, vinyl, and board books that are durable for babies.
- Read books with familiar objects to name.
- Use different voices for different characters - be entertaining.
- Spend time talking about the pictures before turning the page.
- Read aloud to your baby for only a few minutes at a time.
- Increase reading time as your older baby is willing to listen.
- Take toddlers to the library or bookstore for story hour.
Reading to your preschooler
- Set aside at least one regularly scheduled time each day for reading.
- Move your finger under the words as you read aloud. This helps preschoolers connect printed words to spoken words.
- Encourage your children to join in while you read. Pause to let them fill in a rhyming word or repeating line
- Look for books that are about things that interest your toddler. For example, does your child like cars, insects or animals?
- Ask open-ended questions, such as "What do you think is going to happen next?" or "Why do you think he did that?"
Reading with your beginning reader
- Set aside at least one regularly scheduled time each day for reading.
- Let your child gradually share some of the reading aloud. You read a sentence, paragraph, or page, then it's your child's turn.
- If your child can't sound out a word, suggest skipping it, reading the rest of the sentence, and deciding what word would make sense.
- Take your new reader to the library to sign up for his or her own library card.