Books and Story Telling

Story telling is an essential skill for children as they progress through their school years. Not only do  stories help expand vocabulary, teach children varying sentence structures and help them succeed in writing stories in the classroom, they are also a necessary skill for social relationships.

When a child comes home from school, one of the first questions many parents ask them is, ‘What did you do today?’. This seemingly simple question draws on a huge range of skills – ability to recall events, having the vocabulary to express and sequence ideas, being able to create full sentences, and making sure that what they’re saying is clear, concise and has enough information that others know what they are talking about. Skip any of these, and the words that come out of the child’s mouth may be very hard to follow!

So how can parents start helping their children at home? A great way to build story telling skills is through reading books with your child. Helping your child enjoy books early on will set them up for later literacy success, as well as supporting language growth. As your child enters school, following these steps can help foster an interest in books – and where there’s interest, growth soon follows!

As tempting as it can be to ask lots of questions while reading a book with your child, try to balance it out with comments - aim for four comments for every question you ask. This helps keep your child engaged and see reading as a fun activity rather than homework.

For book ideas, we recommend heading over to https://booksharetime.com. Developed by WA speech pathologist Cecile, you can filter the books based on age, concepts, narrative structure, rhyme and sounds… the list goes on!