[New] Shared reading and language development

By Dr Jamie Lingwood

Early language development is incredibly important and sitting down to read with your child gives them a big advantage.

Make it a conversation

Shared reading is so much more than simply reading books aloud from start to finish. It’s powerful as an interactive experience, creating a conversation along the way. Evidence suggests that asking children lots of open questions about books can really boost language skills. Exposure to new words builds their vocabulary and the more they hear spoken language, the more easily they can use it themselves. The earlier you start, the better their reading ages will be at school. Research has demonstrated how shared reading protects against a lot of language difficulties and delays. It can even predict how successful children could be as adults in terms of income!

Doing it your own way

Parents, grandparents, carers or sibling will each have their own reading styles; and that’s a good thing. Find the flow that comes most naturally to you, making the experience more interactive as you go along.

Picture books are a good start

Picture books with few or no words are great starting points. A good example is Hug by Jez Alborough, which simply repeats the word ‘hug’ on each page. It’s then down to the adult to create a story around this, starting a conversation with the child. Talking with them about what they see and what they think about the story naturally involves using a mix of words and grammatically structured sentences. The book becomes a prompt for children to express themselves.

Reading the same book over and over...

I hear this a lot from parents: ‘My child wants to read the same book over and over again.’ As an adult, what do you do? Do you read the book for the thirty fifth time this week or encourage them to read something else? A recent study suggests that reading the same book repeatedly can help with a child’s memory, in terms of building familiarity with particular words. The biggest challenge is your stamina - knowing it’s all in a good cause might help here!

When and where?

When it comes to shared reading, little and often is the way forward. You don’t have to sit down and rigidly read with your child for a set hour at a time. Five minutes here and there is just as useful, particularly when it comes to keeping them motivated. Fit reading around what works for you and the structure of your own lives. You may well choose a time towards the end of the day when you’re settling them down for bed. But for a lot of people, that isn’t successful because, by that point, their child is too tired to engage properly. Remember it doesn’t have to be bedtime. Pick a different point in the day. Or grab five minutes when you’re travelling on the bus together, for example.

And finally…

Do it yourself! When your child sees you reading and clearly enjoying it, they will want to copy you. This will help them develop a habit that will open up a lifelong world of adventures and learning.

Here

are my thoughts on the how’s and why’s of shared reading.

Try ‘elaborative reminiscing’

This involves getting the child to think about a time that relates to themselves, prompted by the book. So, if the book’s narrative is about going to the zoo and seeing lots of animals, stop reading and ask, ‘Do you remember when we went to the zoo? Can you remember which animals we saw?’ It gets a conversation going, it relates the story specifically to the child’s own experiences. This exercise has been shown to boost language development, particularly for memory and vocabulary.

Dr Jamie Lingwood is a Lecturer in Psychology at Liverpool Hope University (www.hope.ac.uk/psychology) and belongs to the ChildLab research group, a group of psychologists and educators who are interested in researching how children develop and grow.

The ‘re-casting’ technique

When a child is reading to a parent they will often come across a word they don’t know or struggle to articulate. Let them have an initial go at it, then instead of saying they are incorrect, let them hear the correct grammatical version. This is what we call re-casting. For example, if they said: ‘The dog jump on the sofa’, you can say, ‘Yes, the dog jumped on the sofa, didn’t he?’ It’s a good strategy to adopt in shared book reading.

Nurseries Listings 2023 Helping you find the right place for your little ones - our 2023 guide to some of the nurseries local to Oxfordshire with the latest Ofsted ratings, correct at the time we went to press.

BLEWBURY PRE-SCHOOL PLAYGROUP, DIDCOT blewburypreschool.co.uk 01235 851786 (Ofsted Good 2022)

BUSY BEES DAY NURSERY, BICESTER www.busybeeschildcare.co.uk 01869 321 522 (Ofsted Good 2019)

CHANDLINGS NURSERY, OXFORD www.chandlings.org.uk/nursery 01865 730771

CHARLBURY PRE-SCHOOL, CHIPPING NORTON www.charlburypreschool.org.uk 01608 811200 (Ofsted Good 2018)

CHILD FIRST BANBURY www.childfirstbanbury.com 01295 273743 (Ofsted Good 2022)

CHILD FIRST BICESTER www.childfirstbicester.com 01869 323730 (Ofsted Good 2017)

CHILDREY LITTLE DUCKS PRE-SCHOOL www.childreylittleducks.org 07825 241395 (Ofsted Good 2022)

CORNFLOWER NURSERY, HEADINGTON SCHOOL www.headington.org/nursery/nursery-day 01865 759400

CRANFORD HOUSE NURSERY SCHOOL, CHOLSEY www.cranfordhouse.net 01491 651218

DAFFODIL DAY NURSEY LTD, WITNEY www.daffodil-nursery.co.uk 01993 883451 (Ofsted Good 2018)

LITTLE BEARS PRE-SCHOOL, STADHAMPTON www.little-bears.com 01865 400033 (Ofsted Good 2018)

LITTLE MILTON PRIMARY SCHOOL NURSERY, LITTLE MILTON little-milton.oxon.sch.uk/nursery 01844 279310 (Ofsted Good 2019)

LORD WILLIAMS’S SCHOOL DAY NURSERY, THAME www.lwsdaynursery.co.uk 01844 260231 (Ofsted Good 2022)

MAGPIES PRESCHOOL KIDLINGTON www.magpiespreschool.info 01865 373444

MONGEWELL PARK DAY NURSERY AND PRESCHOOL (BRIGHT HORIZONS), WALLINGFORD www.brighthorizons.co.uk 0333 920 4333 (Ofsted Good 2021)

PEAPODS NURSERY SCHOOL, HENLEY-ON-THAMES www.peapodsnurseryschool.com 01491 628002 (Ofsted Good 2018)

PIPPINS DAY NURSERY & NURSERY SCHOOL, HEADINGTON.www.aurorachildcare.co.uk 01865 227872 (Ofsted Good 2022)

PUDDLEDUCK NURSERY, WALLINGFORD www.puddleduck-oxfordshire.co.uk 01491 839815 (Ofsted Good 2019)

SANDFIELD DAY NURSERY AND PRE-SCHOOL, HEADINGTON www.childbasepartnership.com/sandfield-daynursery 01865 744200 (Ofsted Outstanding 2022)

SMART TOTS DAY NURSERY, BANBURY www.completechildcare.co.uk 01295 259393 (Ofsted Good 2022)

SPARKLING MINDS PRE-SCHOOL & DAY NURSERY (formerly Bear Necessities Day Nursery), WESTON-ON-THE-GREEN www.bearnecessitiesnursery.co.uk 01869 351118 (Ofsted Good 2017)

SUMMERTOWN MONTESSORI NURSERY www.montessorinorthoxford.org 01865 311364 / 554954 (Ofsted Good 2019)

THE AUNTIES’ OLD SCHOOL NURSERY, STANTON-ST-JOHN www.theoldschoolnursery.co.uk 01865 351215 (Ofsted Outstanding 2022)

THE AUNTIES’ OLD SCHOOL NURSERY, WHEATLEY www.theoldschoolnursery.co.uk 01865 872606 (Ofsted Outstanding 2019)

THE CO-OPERATIVE CHILDCARE DAY NURSERY OXFORD www.thecooperativechildcare.coop 0800 954 0669 (Ofsted Good 2022)

THE FARMHOUSE NURSERY SCHOOL, WITNEY www.thefarmhousenurseryschool.co.uk 01993 700797 (Ofsted Good 2022)

THE MANOR PREPARATORY SCHOOL PRE-NURSERY & NURSERY, ABINGDON www.manorprep.org/early-years/nursery 01235 858462

THE OLD STATION NURSERY, OXFORD, OXFORD SCIENCE PARK www.theoldstationnursery.co.uk/nurseries/oxford/ 01865 777167

THE OLD STATION NURSERY, BAMPTON www.theoldstationnursery.co.uk/nurseries/ bampton 01993 850333 (Ofsted Good 2021)

THE OLD STATION NURSERY,UPPER HEYFORD, BICESTER www.theoldstationnursery.co.uk/ nurseries/heyford/ 01869 233268 (Ofsted Good 2021)

THE OLD STATION NURSERY, FARINGDON www.theoldstationnursery.co.uk/nurseries/ faringdon/ 01367 243800 (Ofsted Good 2019)

THE OLD STATION NURSERY, FILKINS, LECHLADE www.theoldstationnursery.co.uk/ nurseries/filkins/ 01367 860594 (Ofsted Outstanding 2019)

THE WANTAGE NURSERY AND PRE-SCHOOL www.wantagenursery.co.uk 01235 760213 (Ofsted Requires Improvement 2022)

THE WILLOW ON THE FARM, BANBURY www.willowonthefarm.co.uk 01608 730143 (Ofsted Outstanding 2019)