[asset_library_tag 1754,Download the PDF of this article]
Recent statistics indicate that fewer parents are reading to their children. Since 2013, the number of parents who share books with their pre-schoolers has dropped by nearly a fifth to 51 per cent. In some ways, this is unsurprising. The increased use of tablets means that children are often sitting quietly and entertaining themselves in situations where previously adults might have read to them.
This significant change in parenting practice means early years settings cannot assume that all children will have a bedtime story or that a child will have discovered the magic of books. While planning for play and individual children’s interests is now an accepted part of early years practice, perhaps the time has also come to include planned opportunities for sharing books.
BENEFITS: LINKING BOOKS TO THE EYFS
As an adult-led activity, sharing a book with one or two children has many benefits and it is easy to map them to the EYFS or other early years curricula.
Personal, Social and Emotional Development
While, as we will see later, the educational benefits of books are significant, we should never overlook the emotional impact that sharing books can have on a child. Cuddled up with a favourite adult, sharing a book, can help children feel loved and safe. Books can also help children explore and understand emotions such as loss, anger and jealousy safely. Some books also give children thrill and excitement as they take an unknown journey and visit undiscovered places in the company of a character.
Communication and Language
Sharing books with individual or pairs of children is a great way to provoke comments, questions and conversations. Books can also help children to develop vocabulary as the text may include words that are new to them. The illustrations can also trigger children’s interest and be a way of building vocabulary.
Physical Development
Some aspects of children’s physical development can be encouraged when children share books with adults. Turning pages, lifting flaps and even holding a book requires fine motor movements. Sitting or standing still to look at a book also requires a level of co-ordination and core stability.
Literacy
Sharing books is a key way in which children can meaningfully see how words work in print. Very early on, children start to recognise that the print on the page represents words and also that in English, words go from left to right and from top to bottom. Children who have had high-quality and personalised reading experiences are more likely to be motivated to learn to read as they have already been signed up to the magic of books.
Mathematics
Many books will provide opportunities to draw children’s attention to time, shapes and patterns as well as to number. While in some books it is the text that may have explicit references to mathematical concepts, in many books there are opportunities for mathematical discussions to be found within the illustrations.
Understanding the World
Many books show children a world different from their own and as such are one way of widening children’s knowledge and horizons. The variety of backdrops where stories are set is huge and so the simple act of sharing a book with a child introduces them to parks, beaches, trains and even lands where dinosaurs roam.
Expressive Arts and Design
Some books can be springboards for children’s play, especially role play and construction. It is always worth considering whether a child or group of children may benefit from props that will enable them to play imaginatively and explore further the themes of a book.
CHOOSING BOOKS
It may seem odd, but a good tip when choosing a book is to make sure that you like it. This is because adults always do a better job when they share a book that they enjoy.
Books also need to be chosen that match children’s language level. This is particularly important when choosing books for babies and children who are new to English.
It is also worth planning for books in the same way that we create plans for play for individual children. The ideal would be to choose books that over time introduce children to a range of characters, places and situations.
HELPFUL TIPS FOR SHARING BOOKS
There are some simple tips when sharing books with children that can make a significant difference to how children engage with and enjoy a book.
Always read a book through before sharing it with a child. This means that you will read it more fluently and also be sure that it is right for the child.
Choose a quiet and comfortable space as this will help the child to concentrate.
Follow the child’s lead even when this means going backwards!
Let children turn the pages of the book so that they learn to handle books.
Take time to look at the illustrations and note what the child is interested in.
With babies and young children, make comments rather than ask questions. Remember also to pause so that children have time to respond.
Offer to read the book again as the more a child becomes familiar with a book, the stronger the benefits to the child will be.
With older children, run your finger under words so that they can see the connection between spoken words and print.
Never insist that a child should sit down or finish a book.
Finally, try to share a book with only one or two children at a time. (If more children want to join in, it tells you that more opportunities to share books are needed!)
HOME LEARNING
While many parents are keen for their children to do well, not all parents understand the difference that regularly sharing a book can make to their child’s learning. Some parents will have been read to as children, but this is not a universal experience, and so not all parents have the knowledge about to how to choose books or how best to share them. It can, therefore, be helpful to provide parents with strategies as to how they might share a book with their child, along with suggestions or, ideally, a copy of a book that their child has already enjoyed.
While encouraging the use of books at home, it is important to be very sensitive. Not all parents are comfortable with literacy and they may not feel able to say so.
NEW SERIES: SHARING BOOKS
See here for the first in Penny Tassoni’s monthly series on sharing books with children.
Over the course of the series, Penny will look at a range of fiction and non-fiction titles, from rhyming books for babies to picture books that adults and children can explore together.
MORE INFORMATION
The amount of learning that occurs through sharing books with a child depends largely on the quality of the adult-child interactions.
To find out more about story-sharing techniques and how best to boost children’s engagement with books and scaffold their learning, see:
- ‘All about… dialogic reading’ by Joan Kiely
- ‘In focus’ by Lucy Rodriguez Leon and Tamsin Harvey.
- At: www.nurseryworld.co.uk
