Tips for Reading Aloud to Children:
- Seat children on the floor close to you, making sure everyone can see the illustrations. Choose a low chair or stool to sit on while you read, holding the picture book close to the children’s eye level.
- Hold the book with your left hand at the center bottom; turn pages with your right hand.
- If book is new, press pages open flat before beginning. Hold book 12-15″ from your chest out to left side of your body with top of book in line with your chin.
- Before you begin reading, allow a few moments for your listeners to settle down and adjust their minds to the story.
- Introduce the story — a simple statement of what the book is about; relate the story to some recent experience.
- State the title of the books.
- Read with feeling and enthusiasm; use plenty of expression.
- Adjust your pace to fit the story — read faster for exciting action, slower for quieter passages. Pause periodically.
- Define new words (if needed) without interrupting the flow of the story.
- Maintain eye contact with the children. Glance up a the end of a sentence.
- Evaluate while you read — are the children interested? Are you reading too slow or too fast? What about your phrasing, tonal quality, volume?
- When story is finished, allow time for the children to discuss the story.
- Add extra dimension to the book whenever possible through such activities as finger plays, action rhymes, finger puppets, puppet mitts, puppets, draw-and-tell stories, cut-and-tell stories, songs, crafts, and flannel board stories.
17 Good Reasons for Reading Aloud to Your Child:
- Creates an interest in books and a desire to learn to read.
- Develops a taste for fine literature (high literacy and artistic quality).
- Expands vocabulary; provides opportunity for children to hear, understand and adopt new works; hear familiar words used in new contexts.
- Develops listening skills.
- Familiarizes children with the “sound” of written language; they gain some sense of the relationship between oral and written language.
- Encourages children to see reading as a pleasurable experience and books as a source of delight.
- Broadens children’s experiences to things they might not have the opportunity to do or to places they have not been.
- Introduces children to and prepares them for new situations they are likely to encounter (e.g. a new baby in the family, moving to a new neighborhood).
- Teaches that all people share similar feelings and needs and that other children have similar experiences (e.g. starting school, having a birthday party).
- Allows children to imagine, dream and laugh.
- Helps children learn new ideas, concepts and information.
- Provides opportunity to learn group skills (taking turns, sharing, respecting rights of others, contributing to discussion).
- Fosters motivation, self-esteem and self-confidence.
- Improves comprehension and visual skills; increases attention span.
- Teaches concepts about “story” (beginning, middle, end; characters; plot; setting).
- Teaches concepts about print; printed words have meaning; spoken words can be printed; pictures go with words; spaces between words; signals/punctuation marks and capital letter help reader know when to start, pause, and stop; pages have numbers; we read from left to right and top to bottom; read from bottom of one page to top of next; turning pages from front of book to back.
- It’s FUN for the reader and the listener.
