When you read your child a bedtime story, you’re supposed to open the book and read what’s on the page, right? Not necessarily. Early learning experts agree that your child benefits as much from having a conversation about the pictures as they do from learning the story’s words. In her book Bright from the Start (Gotham Books), Jill Stamm, PhD, says parents can ask questions like these:
- “What is that silly duck wearing?”
- “What kind of animals do you think will be on the next page?”
- “Remember when you were on the swing at Grandma’s house?”
This interactive style is often called “dialogic reading.” Besides helping your child develop her attention, vocabulary, and predicting skills, dialogic reading gives you a chance to bond, and to make each story your own. Psychologist and child development researcher Laura E. Berk says, “In dialogic reading, the adult encourages the child to become a participant in the narrative, even a storyteller.”
In Awakening Children’s Minds (Oxford University Press), Berk says this cooperative approach can lead to language development that lasts well beyond the end of story time. Telling the story together can also make your child feel involved and important, which could increase her interest in reading later.
An author’s words and an illustrator’s art are just the beginning. What you and your child create as readers may be the most meaningful part of the story.