Reading to your Children

Reading to your children

The following is a link that will take you to a list of ways that you can maintain reading with your child throughout the day! https://resourcebank.ca/courses/20-easy-ways-to-read-20-minutes-everyday/view

Begin Early - How early? It's never too early to start! (Cloth books and Board books are great starter books)
Select books that have few words on each page, are repetitive and rhythmic in nature. - Examples of beginner books include: Wheels on the Bus, Five Little Ducks, Hand Hand Fingers Thumb, Good Night Moon, Dear Zoo, Where is My Belly Button?, Brown Bear Brown Bear, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Very Busy Spider and From Head to Toe.
Read the same book every day for 1 week. ( Begin with a preferred book.)

Some children like story time more than others. If your child is not excited by story time then try to make is as fun and rewarding as possible:

When you are ready to start, present the following phrase a direction, use the phrase, "It's time to read a story."
Bring your child to the "reading area" which can be any area that is free of distraction.
Give the child a space to sit and move around if he/she needs to move.
Have a few books available and allow your child to select the book. If your child doesn't make a selection, select a book and say, "ok, we are going to start with _____."
Begin reading the book to your child.
Differentially reinforce all appropriate behavior while your child is participating in story time.

*Sitting for story time is a skill that children need learn.

It needs to be taught, practiced, reinforced and generalized.

Day 1 (Introduce a short, fun, repetitive/rhythmic book to your child while he/she is engaged in a preferred activity.)

Begin by approaching your child while he/she is engaged in a preferred activity. The preferred activity can be one that is engaging to your child but not so overstimulating that they are unable to attend to you for brief periods of time.
Begin reading a short book by placing no demands on your child. Try to sound enthusiastic while you are reading. Praise your child by saying, "I like how you are staying here while I read the story, or Good playing whil I read the book.
As soon as possible, begin to shape the story time behaviors by differentially reinforcing all spontaneous attending to the book behaviors, i.e., when your child spontaneously takes a brief pause from engaging in the preferred activity to engage in the book, acknowledge it by providing specific verbal praise, i.e, "Good looking at the pictures!", "Good looking at me", "Good turning the page", "Good filling in the blank" and also provide small at of preferred edible, i.e., 1 cheerio, 1 chocolate chip, etc.
Repeat the book 2 or 3x's in one sitting or throughout the day to provide multiple opportunities to practice the skill.

Day 2 (Begin shaping attending behaviors)

Repeat steps 1-3

Interrupt your child briefly while he/she is engaging in a preferred activity and prompt your child to turn each page after you are finished reading it. Do this by saying, "turn the page", prompt the response and then praise the child for turning the page.
Differentially reinforce your child for exhibiting all appropriate attending /story time behaviors.
If your child reaches for the book, teach your child how to handle a book appropriately. This is done by prompting the correct way to hold a book, and to properly manipulate a pop-up book.

Day 3 (Increase time on task)

Try to encourage your child to decrease time playing with preferred activity and increase time attending to the book. This can be done systematically by casually interrupting and blocking your child's access to the activity during the book.

Block access while reading 1 page then reinforce by providing access to preferred activity.
Block access to a preferred activity while reading 1 page, follow with a one- step direction, "turn the page" (prompt if necessary) and then reinforce by providing access to the preferred activity.
Block access to a preferred activity while reading 2 pages, follow with a one- step direction, "turn the page" after each page (prompt if necessary) and then reinforce by providing access to the preferred activity.
Continue to increase the # of pages that your child needs to attend before regaining access to the preferred activity.

*This should be a fun a rewarding activity for you both so take your time and have fun!

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