Shared book reading, story time and the book corner are all common features in early years settings, but the learning and development that young children gain from these activities are strongly linked to the quality of the adult-child interactions and relationships that support children’s engagement with books.
Skilful adult scaffolding during book-related activities can positively enhance aspects of children’s learning, while taking a ‘Focus Stories’ approach can enrich children’s engagement with books and promote a deeper level of learning.
Particularly effective in helping an adult scaffold children’s learning is ‘dialogic reading’, which requires us to re-evaluate the idea of the adult as the reader and the child as the listener – rather than reading to children, we are reading with them. During shared book reading it is neither the adult nor the child who is ‘in charge’ of the activity; it is a partnership.
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