Reading books, sharing stories, talking and singing every day helps your child’s development in many ways.
Reading and storytelling can:
Reading stories with children has benefits for you too. The special time you spend reading together promotes bonding and builds your relationship with your child.
You can start reading aloud to your baby as early as you like – the earlier the better. Your baby will love being held in your arms, listening to your voice, hearing rhyme and rhythm, and looking at pictures.
Reading isn’t the only way to help with your child’s language and literacy development.
Telling stories, singing songs and saying rhymes together are also great activities for early literacy skills – and your child will probably have a lot of fun at the same time. Sometimes your child might enjoy these activities more than reading.
You and your child might like to make up your own stories or share family stories. Your child will learn words and develop language skills from the songs, stories and conversations you share together.
You can use books to share stories, but you don’t always have to read. Just by looking at pictures and talking about them with your child, you can be a storyteller and a model for using language and books. Your child will also learn by watching you hold a book the right way and seeing how you move through the book by gently turning the pages.
You can read, sing and tell stories with your child in whatever language you feel most comfortable speaking.
Using a language you’re comfortable with helps you to communicate more easily. It also helps to make reading, singing and storytelling more fun for you and your child. Your child will still learn that words are made up of different letters, syllables and sounds, and that words usually link to the pictures on the page.
If you speak languages other than English at home but want to introduce your child to reading in English, you can look for dual-language books. Or you could read a book aloud in English or listen to an audio book in English and then talk about the story with your child in whatever language feels most comfortable.
Bedtime, bath time, potty time, on the train, on the bus, in the car, in the park, in the pram, in the cot, when you’re in the GP’s waiting room ... any time is a good time for a story! You can make books part of your daily routine – take them with you to share and enjoy everywhere.
Knowing when to stop can be just as important as finding the time to share a story in the first place. Pay attention to your child’s reaction to the story, and stop if your child isn’t enjoying it. You can always try a different book, song or story another time.
If you don’t have a book or can’t make up a story on the spot, don’t worry. There are many other ways you and your child can share letters, words and pictures. For example, you can look at:
You could check out our storytelling videos. Let storyteller Anne E. Stewart introduce you and your child to ‘Mook Mook the owl’, ‘The crocodile’ and ‘The old lady and the mosquito’.
If you have older children, they can share books with your younger children, or you can all read together. Taking turns, asking questions and listening to the answers are all important skills that will help children when they start learning how to read.
Just reading for a few minutes at a time is good – you don’t always have to finish the book. As children grow, they can usually listen for longer.
As a broad rule, young children often enjoy books, songs and stories that have good rhyme, rhythm and repetition. In fact, one of the ways that children learn is through repetition and rhyme.
Children also like books they can relate to – for example, books about play, toys, dinner, bath time, walks, animals and cars.
It’s also important to choose books that are the right length for your child.
For a guide to what might suit your child, you can look at the following articles:
You can also vary the books and printed materials you read. Picture books, ebooks, magazines, instruction manuals, TV guides and letters can all be interesting and engaging for your child.
If your older child is interested in ebooks, look for ones without distracting games or animations. Also, it’s important to read ebooks with your child, rather than leaving your child alone with a device. It’s best if ebooks don’t replace paper books.
If you want to try new books or magazines without much cost, you could arrange book swaps with friends or other parents at your parent group or early childhood centre.
Libraries have a lot to offer. Getting to know your local library can be a part of learning about and loving books.
You can borrow great children’s books for free from your local library. This means you can have plenty of books in your home for your child to explore – and it won’t cost you a cent.
Taking your child to the library and letting them choose their own books can be a fun adventure. You can talk about and plan your trip to the library with your child. You could ask your child, for example:
Many libraries also offer free story times and activities for young children. Going along to these sessions is a way to help your child get familiar with the library, have fun, and enjoy books and stories. Some libraries offer these sessions online.
Libraries often have audio books, dual-language books, ebooks and magazines.
Just contact your local library for more information.
Books create warm emotional bonds between adults and kids when they read books together.
Books help kids develop basic language skills and profoundly expand their vocabularies—much more than any other media.
Books are interactive; they demand that kids think. Fiction and nonfiction books widen our consciousness. They give us new ways to think and new ideas. They expand our universe beyond time and place and inspire our own original thoughts.
Books develop critical thinking skills. A book is read by an individual. It has no laugh track or musical score that emotionally primes a reader’s reaction. You alone decide what you think about a book and its contents with no one leaning over your shoulder telling you how to think.
Books develop and nourish kids’ imaginations, expanding their worlds. Picture books introduce young children to the world of art and literature. Novels and nonfiction books stimulate kids’ sensory awareness, helping kids to see, hear, taste, feel, and smell on an imagined level. Books inform our imaginations, inspiring creativity.
Books let kids try on the world before they have to go out into it. Books give kids an opportunity to experience something in their imaginations before it happens to them in real life. Books help prepare kids for their next stage of maturity, vicariously preparing for the “grown-up” world.
Books help us to understand ourselves, to find out who we are. Books strengthen our self-confidence and help us to understand why we are who we are. They help us discover where we come from and help us figure out where we want to go.
Books help children and adults to open up, to move beyond self-absorption and connect to other people. Books show us the inner workings of multiple perspectives and let us know there is more than one way to view the world. Books build connections and broaden our capacity to empathize; they help us to understand others. Books help us to become more compassionate.
Books help kids to chart their own moral and ethical course. Books help us to reflect on right and wrong, good and evil. Books can offer guidance and help us to determine our life priorities, our own set of values.
Books answer questions.
Books create questions.
Books provide the opportunity to share cultural experiences. When kids read the same book, enjoying a common reading experience, peer bonds are built within a generation. When children, parents, and grandparents share classic books, extended familial and community bonds are formed creating a shared frame of reference.
Books offer a wide breadth of information, experience, and knowledge. But unlike many electronic media, books also offer a great depth of information, experience, and knowledge. Books inform us about other people, other countries, other customs and cultures. Books help us to teach ourselves about history, the arts, science, religion, nature, mathematics, and technology –– anything and everything in our universe and beyond. Books also help us to understand the effect that all those things have on us and our world.
Books entertain and offer a great escape. They make us laugh and giggle. They make us cry.
Books — unlike many other entertainments –– are free for everyone. You can find the book you need, for free, at your neighborhood public library.
Books are great companions. You are never lonely when you have a book to read.
Books comfort us. Books help us understand that no matter who we are, or what our experiences may be, we are not alone in the world.
BOOKS INSPIRE US TO DREAM.
BOOKS GIVE US THE TOOLS TO ACHIEVE OUR DREAMS.
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