Books are one of the greatest tools for language! Make time to read with your kids. Find books at the library, borrow from a friend, or watch a video of a book. Kids love to cuddle while enjoying a book. You can enjoy this time together!

Way to use books for language:

Before your child reads a book, ask:

• Look at the cover. What do you see on the cover? Or ask, do you see a ____(boy, animal, house, farm, etc...?) Where do you think they are? 

• Talk about the title. This book is called The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I wonder how that caterpillar feels? Do you think he will find some food? What do you think he might eat?

• What do you think the book is going to be about? Based on the title and the cover pictures, make some guesses about the book. (I see a train. I wonder if someone will go on a trip)

• Use a variety of words – Try to avoid just naming the pictures in the book as this will result in your child being exposed to mostly nouns (names of things). While nouns are important, your child also needs to be exposed to words that describe (e.g. “messy”, “sticky”, “enormous”), action words (“climb”, “fly”, “yell”, “see”), words for feelings (“grumpy”, “excited”, “tired”), location words (“beside”, “under”, “through”), words about time (“soon”, “later”, “after”), etc.

• Expand your child’s message – When your child says something about the book, you can respond by elaborating on his message. For example, if she says “there’s a frog” while pointing to a picture of a frog jumping between lily pads, you can expand by saying “Yes, the frog is jumping on the lily pads!”  Adding on to your child’s idea shows your child how to produce longer sentences and gives her more information about the topic. 

• Make statements  - Try to avoid too many testing questions such as 'What's that?', 'Where's the dog?' and so on. These can be useful sometimes but children also benefit from hearing you say the words and using strategies like pausing to see if they copy e.g. I can see a dog, you can see a (pause)...' 

While your child is watching the book video, try pausing to ask:

• What is happening on this page?

• How does he/she feel? (happy, sad, mad, disappointed? excited?)

• Will you catch me up on the story? What’s happened so far?

• What do you think will happen next?

• Go beyond the “here-and-now” – go beyond the pages of the book to generate discussions with your child that will expand her thinking. You can help your child predict what might happen (eg. “What do you think will happen when the wolf tries to blow down the brick house?”), compare and contrast (eg. “That dog is really small, just like your friend Jane’s dog”), talk about feelings (eg. “That boy can’t find his ball. He looks sad”), and make connections with her experiences (eg. “Remember when you lost your doll and you felt sad?”). These ways of talking encourage your child to think, solve problems, and imagine.

After your child has finished a book, ask questions like:

• What was your favorite part of the book? Why?

• Try to retell the story- What happened first? What happened next? What happened at the end?