Our Speech Therapists at Therapy At Play love using picture books in therapy, and for good reason! Shared reading activities can increase development in multiple areas (Doyle & Bramwell, 2006; Debaryshe, 1993; Burner, 1978) and promote language development in children with typical development (Teale & Sulzby,1986; Westby, 1985) and with language impairments (Gillam & Ukrainetz, 2006). Reading every day at home is a great way parents can help improve speech and language development.
If your child is younger, or more resistant to book reading, don’t feel that you need to read every word. Instead, talk about what is happing in the pictures. Try to avoid quizzing (i.e. “What’s that? What do you see?”), and focus on commenting (i.e. “I see the red bird”) and providing pauses for your child to comment or point. Books with interactive parts, such as lift-the-flap books or Poke-a-Dot books are also great for increasing engagement with books.
For children who are able to engage with books for longer, you can use the CROWD method of dialogic reading.
- C – Completion: Leaving blanks for your child to complete your sentence (i.e. The porridge in the big bowl was too ____)
- R – Recall: Straightforward, right there recall questions (i.e. What did Goldilocks eat?)
- O – Open-ended: Discussion questions that can have a variety of answers (i.e. How do you think Goldilocks felt?)
- W – WH questions: Who/what/when/where/why (i.e. Why did Goldilocks like the porridge in the little bowl? Who sleeps in the big bed?)
- D – Distancing: Questions that make a connection to the student’s opinions or experiences (i.e. How would you feel if you were in that situation?)
Virtually all children’s books are appropriate for dialogic reading. The best books have rich detailed pictures, or are interesting to your child. Always follow your child’s interest when sharing books with your child. Some of our favorite books at TAP are:
- The Bear Book Series by Karma Wilson
- There was an Old Lady Series by Lucille Colandro
- The Night Before Book Series by Natasha Wing
- If You Give… bookseries by Laura Numeroff
- King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub by Audrey Wood
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar and The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
- Walking Through the Jungle and The Animal Boogie by Debbie Harter