Book Reading with your Child
Reading books with your child supports the development of their vocabulary, oral language skills and emergent literacy skills. But it can be difficult to know where to start to get the most from your reading time. Let us introduce you to dialogic book reading.
Start by selecting an appropriate book. Choosing a favourite book of your child’s or one that relates to their interests is a good place to start. Lift the flap books can also be great for this type of reading! Check out www.booksharetime.com
Dialogic book reading helps your child to become the teller of the story. Children learn most from books when they are actively engaged. You can foster this by using the PEER sequence.
- Prompt your child to say something about the book – Use CROWD prompts to get your child interacting (see below).
- Evaluate your child’s response – Praise or acknowledge them.
- Expand on your child’s response – Rephrase or expand upon their response.
- Repeat the prompt – This helps ensure they have learnt from the expansion.
For example, you are reading a book with your child that is all about ducks.
The prompt: “What is this?” “Duck”
The evaluation: “That’s right!
The expansion: “it’s a brown duck! We saw one at the park yesterday.”
The repetition: “Can you say brown duck?”
You can use PEER sequences on every page of a book, but you don’t have to. Keep it fun! Use PEER when your child is engaged in the story.
CROWD Prompts
CROWD is a word to help you remember to ask different types of question. Each letter represents a particular type of question.
Completion prompts – Leave a pause at the end of your sentence to encourage your child to complete it.
“Sleeping in that cave was a very cranky…. Bear!”
The Very Cranky Bear – Nick Bland
Recall prompts – Ask questions about what happened in a book that the child has already read, or ask questions throughout to help your child remember key elements in a story.
“What type of animal is Edward?”
“What did Edward do with the seals?”
Edward the Emu – Sheena Knowles
Open ended prompts – Ask a question that requires the child to describe part of the story in their own words.
“What do you think is happening in this picture?”
“Why do you think she likes making those noises?”
Ruby Roars – Margaret Wild
Wh-questions – Questions that begin with what, where, when, why, and how, and are focused on the pictures in the book.
“What colour is the dog’s fur?”
“Why do you think the girl is angry?”
Annie’s Chair – Deborah Niland
Distancing prompts – Ask your child questions that relate the themes in the book back to their own life.
“What do you like to do at the beach?”
“Have you ever been to a beach with big waves before?”
Magic Beach – Alison Lester
Remember! You don’t need to use every prompt. You can choose one to focus on at a time, or mix it up every few pages.