Reading books! It's one of the most beneficial activities for language development.
The benefits? There are many:
- improves listening skills
- works on memory and concentration
- exposes children to the written word
- helps distinguish fantasy from reality
- develops vocabulary (children discover words outside their everyday life)
- improves reasoning and critical thinking.
It's an inexpensive activity that's well worth adding to your routine!
And here are a few tips to maximize the use of books:
- When you're reading, you can emphasize and lengthen words - "This tree was BIG and had looooooong branches".
- When you're reading, you can explain words with the help of illustrations - "The maple is the tree that makes maple syrup. It has leaves like this".
- When you're reading, you can replace one word with another - "In autumn, maple leaves become colorful - full of colors (red, yellow, orange)".
- When you're reading, you can make connections with everyday life and real objects - "When we were at the park this morning, there were leaves on the ground. Do you think we saw maple leaves?" - "Come on, I'll show you. Dad hid some maple leaves in the dictionary."
- When you're reading, you can make connections between words - "Maples are the trees that produce maple sirup. You see, in the word maple sirup, there's the word maple".
When you're reading, don't forget to have fun: gesticulate, step out of the frame, do voices for each character, let the child tell his or her version...
