Tips for Reading with Kids with Oath's Speech Language Pathologist

June 20, 2022

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Reading with kids is a fantastic way to help develop speech and language skills. For those of you supporting a child who does not yet have the skills to read through the book page-by-page with you, we're here to offer some tips to help encourage your young reader.

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Tip #1: Follow the child's lead

Sometimes a child will want to jump right to the middle of the book or flip around in no particular order. Rather than fighting this, simply go along with them and enjoy the book from their point of view. Focus less on reading the words in order, and more on helping them fall in love with books by making them playful and fun.

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Tip #2: Find ways to spark play

Help the book come alive for your child by using your own expressions and movement. Let's say there is an apple on the page, act like you are grabbing the apple right off the page to take a bite of it. A butterfly? Flutter the book around in the motion of a butterfly. These small interactions can help reading a book feel more like a toy.

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Tip #3: Point out objects to draw their attention

As you tell the story, take the time to explore the illustrations together. Point out different objects to help them get more interested. Start to name whatever you see or ask questions about what they notice.

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Soon enough, your child will start learning, memorizing, and maybe even reading you the book! For a demonstration of the tips in this article, please watch the video below.

Jody Vaynshtok

Jody is a speech language pathologist with more than 10 years of industry and clinical experience. She received her BS in Speech and Hearing Sciences and MS in Medical Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Washington. She was a part of the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford’s Cleft and Craniofacial Clinic, and was the lead speech language pathologist for the UCSF Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery’s Hearing Loss Clinic.