Speech therapy tips for Reading to your little one.

The Speech Therapist’s Tips For  Reading

 

1. BABY STEPS

 

My favorite books to start with are those that have 1 picture per page. The very best are the ‘touch & feel’ books, such as Baby Touch and Feel: First Words (Baby Touch & Feel), because they encourage interaction from your child. Starting with 1 picture per page allows your baby to focus on 1 concept at a time. You may open the book and say, “Cat,” point to the picture, pet the cat’s fur and elaborate with a “meow.”

Your baby will be completely tuned in to the picture, the word cat, and the sound meow. In that moment you have allowed your little one to store a file called “cat” in their mind that has a picture, a label, and a corresponding sound.  That way when they see a different cat and hear the label and the sound, they will store another picture of a cat in that same file. Bravo! It is important to keep your language simple in this phase because we want to meet baby at his or her level.  Using 1-2 words or sounds per page when you start is plenty.

This phase is all about teaching.  Once your child is familiar with the book (i.e. after you have read it to them several times) you can expand.  Your little one will learn to “turn the page,” which is another great way to include them in the activity in this phase.  You can also start to teach identification. You can ask your little one to “find the dog” and help them touch the dog picture instead of the cat picture.  Your little one may even start to imitate sounds (i.e. woof) or labels (i.e. dog).

 

2. INTERACTION IS KEY

 

Books with built in interactive features are wonderful! That is, Velcro books, felt books, books with moving pieces, pop-up and/or peek-a-boo books, etc.  These books are motivating and engaging for little ones.

Motivation is important because it promotes joint attention, which is necessary for learning. Joint attention occurs when your child is focused on the task (i.e. the book) and you. What does this look like? It is as simple as your baby looking at the book, then looking at you, and then back at the book. Interactive books do a lot of the work of keeping your child engaged for you. They are full of directions for children to follow (e.g. “Find the…” “Look under the…” “Put on the…”) and promote expressive language as well.

Since your tiny friend will be engaged and demonstrating joint attention, it is more likely that you will hear new sounds and words! Lastly, they are awesome for turn taking. Turn taking is an important skill that we need for play and for language (i.e. having a conversation).  Musical books and/or those with sing-song verses also promote increased interaction from little ones! They provide a ton of opportunities for our little ones to fill in the blank (i.e. finish the sentence).  When you add a melodic intonation to a phrase, your child is more likely to imitate you.  This is because you are inviting the right brain to help in a left brain task, which I like to explain as using 2 hands instead of 1 to carry a heavy box.

 

3. FIRST IDENTIFY, THEN LABEL

 

Our children will be able to identify pictures before they will be able to label them. Identification is as simple as touching or pointing to a picture. You can teach this skill by asking the question (e.g. “where is the car?”) or giving the direction (e.g. “find the car”) and then gently taking your child’s hand and pointing to the picture together. Even if your little one has 0 words, you can work on identification! It is easiest to identify an item when you are only presented with 2 options (i.e. a book with 1 picture per page).

The more picture options that are present, the harder the task will be for our children.  Remember, baby steps are important so start with easier tasks and build gradually.  Also, it is easier for little ones to identify objects and harder for them to identify actions.  Once your child is consistently able to find objects (i.e. ball, car, boy, sun, apple, tiger, etc.) then you can make the task harder by asking him or her to identify actions.  That is, “show me the girl who is eating” or “find the lion running” and so on.

 

4. ASK QUESTIONS

 

This may seem like an obvious part of book reading, but it is too important to not mention! It is hard to not get caught up in the wonder of beautifully written kids books with morals and meaningful messages. Sometimes we just read right through without stopping to check in with our tiny friends.  I always check focus & comprehension by asking at least 1 question per page.  Even if it is a simple WH question (e.g. “What happened?” “Who is that?” “Where did he swim?” “Why is he sad?” etc.)

Asking questions is the quickest & easiest way to make sure that our little ones are paying attention and understanding the words we are reading.  Even if your little one is not able to verbally communicate yet – you can still check comprehension with gestures.  Simply change your question into one that can be answered by your child pointing to the answer on the page (e.g. “Where is the truck?” “Who feels happy?” “What did he eat?” etc.)

 

5. THINK OUTSIDE THE BOOK

 

Reading to your little one is not always going to be as picture perfect as it seems. Sometimes our little ones do not want to sit, sometimes they want to hold the book themselves, sometimes they only want to turn the pages, etc. It is okay to get creative and use helping tools!

• Timers Work: Most phones have simple timers. It is an easy way to help your little one understand that the task is not forever, just until the timer goes off.
• YouTube Is Your Friend: A ton of our favorite stories are on YouTube. Your little one may be more interested in acting out the story at first instead of sitting for a book. You can hold the book and read the story along with the video or act it out together.
• Double Up: I like to get a second copy of favorite stories for my tiny friends who like to hold & control the book themselves. That way they feel independent and can read along with you.
• Objects Can Play Too: I like to match toys & objects to pictures in books when it is appropriate. Often times our little ones do it for us! We will be reading and see a dinosaur that looks a lot like our tiny T-Rex, and suddenly your little one runs away to bring the T-Rex into the room and onto the picture. This is wonderful generalization.
• The Stronger The Better: Bath books and board books are the strongest and they can usually withstand drool and/or ripping hands!
  As The Speech Teacher, I post daily ‘Pops of Knowledge’ on Facebook and Instagram that consist of facts, tricks of the trade, at home activities, and product recommendations. I believe that the more you know – as a parent or caregiver – the stronger you will be in supporting your little one’s speech, language, and feeding development! To help you achieve this, my focus is on providing you with FUN & FUNCTIONAL suggestions.Related Article: Top 5 Speech Therapy Tips

  ---

  Molly is a New York City based Speech Language Pathologist and Feeding Therapist.  She is ASHA (American Speech and Hearing Association) Certified and trained in the SOS (Sequential Oral Sensory) Approach to Feeding. She received her Masters in Speech Language Pathology from Teacher’s College, Columbia University, and her Bachelors in Speech and Hearing Science from George Washington University. She currently works with the birth-5 population conducting evaluations & providing speech and feeding therapy in NYC.  Molly provides therapy in the home as well as in a special needs preschool setting.