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Reading Aloud To Your Child -- With Style

© Susan Franklin

I began reading to both of my children as soon as I was home from the hospital and could gather the strength to pick up a book and put it in front of their little puffy newborn faces. Experts say that reading to your child is the most important learning activity in the early years. Reading is key to developing critical language skills, opening their eyes to the world around them, bonding, developing a frame of reference, vocabulary and ability to create visual pictures in their minds. Reading far surpasses television because it involves higher levels of brain activity. But that’s another topic.

Sometimes we parents pick up a book at the end of a long day and read with a bored, monotone voice. Or we’re not comfortable reading aloud and we lack the confidence to make the story live. So what can we do to make our reading time have its desired effect, capture our child's attention and keep her spellbound? Just a few storytelling techniques used at each reading session will liven up your reading time. Here are seven ways to add sparkle to your child’s life through the magic of reading aloud -- with style.

1. Ask a question to introduce one of the characters or the plot. For example, before reading Goldilocks and The Three Bears you could ask, “Do you remember how our oatmeal was too hot for you to eat this morning and we had to drink our juice and look at the comics before you could eat it? Well, the bears in this story went for a walk without locking their door behind them and they had a surprise when the returned.”

2. At least occasionally ham it up by giving characters their own voices. Lower your voice for papa and squeak out baby bear’s dialogue.

3. Speak clearly and enunciate so your child will learn the words and understand them when they are repeated. It helps to glance a few sentences ahead as you are reading. That way you won’t sound like a television news reader who just sat down in front of the camera without glancing at his material.

4. Use your voice to milk the meaning out of the words. Some phrases can have different meanings depending on which word is emphasized. How many ways can you say. “ Where did you get that dress?”

5. Pick out verbs and nouns that are key to the meaning of a passage and really punch them out as you read to help your child hear the important words of the sentence.