As an adult, I relearned how to read books
This is a recording session of me and my son getting coached by a Speech Language Pathologist (Talia) on how to maximize language learning while reading the story of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
The book is about a hungry caterpillar and his journey through discovering food and evolving to become a butterfly. The story itself is irrelevant to the strategies discussed here. Any children’s book with images and simple pictures can be a great resource to practice the art of reading.
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You can watch this video to see how Talia (our Speech-Language Pathology advisor) coaches me on reading books. If you’re interested to know the full story, scroll down.
A point of clarification: It took me almost a year to learn the strategies and to develop them as a habit. If you’re a parent early on your journey, know that it takes time and practice. With repetition and a lot of patience, these strategies WILL eventually work.
And now the full story:
We all think we know how to read a book to a child.
Get close, cuddle up, open the book, start reading from the beginning and go on…
Easy, right?!
Well… not for many!
I remember when I used to read books “my way”, my son would listen at first and then would grab the book and put it in his mouth or wanted to start flipping the pages before I get a chance to finish reading a page. I’d get frustrated and then I’d move his hand away and ask him to “listen!”.
It wasn’t until he was two years old that I started to take parent coaching from Speech-Language Pathologists and I realized there are MANY different ways you can read a book to a child. I would observe the therapists as they were reading a book to my son and was amazed by how much more interactions was going on between him and them. He would have such a good time in those few minutes that made me realize the way I was reading books was for me and not him. I still have a few videos of the sessions that I used to go back to again and again to remember what I should be doing.
My son is now four, and speaks in full sentences. He still loves reading but since I started to learn the strategies, we have much more fun together. Reading has become one of the best parts in our day as we both feel like we’re part of a story and there’s a lot more back and forth conversation between us.
So here are a few strategies that you might have noticed Talia emphasized on in the video:
Follow your little one’s lead: If he/she starts talking about the picture on the cover, tag along. If they want to tap their hand on the book, imitate them. Let them know they’re in charge.
Be flexible about where you start and how you read the book. Reading the book from the middle is not going to change the qualify of your interaction. It’s less about the order of the story and more about how engaged your little one is with the content.
Be conscious of how many questions you ask. As you probably saw in the video, I still struggle with this. We are so used to asking questions as a culture and as adults. It’s OK to ask questions. Just be mindful and try to balance it to have more comments.
Emphasize the new words with a different tone. My voice tends to get loud when I say a word that I want to emphasize on. You don’t have to be loud like me. Do what works for you. Perhaps it’s a melodic tone, it’s a higher pitch, it’s s slowwwwer pace. Whatever comes natural to you and your little one.
HAVE FUN! It’s easier said than done, but if you and your child have a good time while reading a book, their little brain will be more receptive to learning new sounds and words. One thing I realized about myself is if I buy books that I enjoy the subject, my voice becomes a lot more animated. It doesn’t mean I ignore my son’s interests. It just means I try to find subjects that we’re both likely to enjoy. In our case it’s anything related to food or space. What about you?
Leave a comment, ask a question and let me know if this was useful to you.
Happy reading. :)