Storytime is a great time to help develop a baby or toddler’s language. Through language we can help a child to enrich their vocabulary, organise and strengthen their memory, understand abstract concepts, and allow them to express what they feel and want in an efficient way. Apart from choosing the right moment to read, the book needs to be made interesting for the child.

It has been shown that a child’s early language skills are highly related to how much the primary caregivers speak to them during the first years of their life. They are also an indicator of their performance during infant school and the first years of primary. It is through language that we can help a child to enrich their vocabulary, organise and strengthen their memory, understand abstract concepts, and allow them to express what they feel and want in an efficient way. Storytime is a great time to help develop a baby or toddler’s language. 

What’s the best time of the day?

It’s important to choose the right moment and never impose it or ask the child to stop doing another thing they’re enjoying to come and read as they will most probably lose interest this way. Having books around within the child’s reach is the best way for them to be able to tell us when it’s time to sit and read. 

There can be several times in the day at which we sit down and enjoy reading a story together. Having a goodnight story routine can be an effective way of not letting a day go by without having read a book. It will also allow the child to associate this time with reading in the future, and it will create a relaxing atmosphere before bedtime.

Some children will ask to be read to when they wake up in the morning or from a nap. There is no reason why a parent shouldn’t take advantage of their initiative if time allows. Reading a short book during lunchtime can also be a good way of transitioning from a very absorbing game to a less interesting task such as eating.

Here are some tips to take advantage of story time to exploit and develop your child’s language:

Engaging the child

Apart from choosing the right moment to read, the book needs to be made interesting for the child.

• Not reading but talking. In some cases reading the book as it is might be boring or beyond the child’s understanding. When this happens, parents can just ignore the text and, by looking at the pictures together, talk about things the child can relate to.

• Zone of Proximal Development. It’s important to keep the vocabulary we use, the topics we talk about and the things we point at in the images within the child’s zone of proximal development. This means considering what the child already knows, and with the adult’s support, build on it little by little. For instance, if we’re reading The Puss in Boots to a 20 month-old baby, we might not want to talk about kings, and queens explicitly, but we can point out: Is the cat wearing a nice hat on its head? And what is the king wearing? Is it a hat too? No, this is called a crown. Do you like it? What colour is it? Would you like to make a nice yellow crown to put on your head tomorrow morning? 

• Make it fun. Very young children will need a lot of stimuli to keep focused as their level of linguistic understanding will be low. Make  funny voices and sounds. Talk about textures and temperatures: Let’s touch the lion’s mane, is it furry?’ ‘Is that cup of tea hot? Let’s check! Ouch, yes it is! Let’s blow and then try a sip’.

These interactions grab the child’s attention which, in turn, help them memorise the new language. Turning the experience into a game will also make it more enjoyable and they will ask for more books to be read to them:

• Let them choose the story– even if they want to read the same one every day. Repetition is key to learning and children love playing the same games and reading the same books over and over again. To promote further learning, parents can focus on different aspects of the story every day, adding details or going slightly off topic and relating the scenes to the child’s own experiences.

Talking about how the scenes in the book are related to their own lives will help memorise, build on current knowledge and help the child realise that the same words can be used in different contexts.

A book can fit any age

There are many thing adults can do to make a book fit a child’s age and interests:

• If the story is too difficult, tell a different version using mostly  words the child understands.

• If it’s too easy and they know the story, parents can pause for a few seconds on each page to see if the child wants to take the lead.

• Letting them finish our sentences– especially if there’s rhyme.

• Staying on each page for a while, focusing on the details and talking about them can be very enriching if the story itself is too easy for the child’s age and level: ‘What’s the dog having for breakfast? Do you like bread and honey too? Do you know who makes the honey?’ ‘Oh no, what’s that on the cat’s dress, she got a tomato sauce stain! What should she have been wearing? Do you wear a bib at lunchtime?’

• Adding content. Flap book is the very first kind a baby will read but it can be made suitable for toddlers if they insist on reading. In a book where animals hide behind the flaps we can add: ‘What does the elephant do? Are they big or small? What’s their favourite food? Are you scared of them? Do you remember the mummy with the baby elephant that we saw at the zoo? What were they doing?’

All of these tips will help make reading enjoyable from the beginning and create a routine that can be turned into a life-time habit. Helping develop a child’s language through storytelling can be as easy as adapting the content to their needs and focusing on having a good time.