Reading with small children
Nal'ibali
We know from recent research that the first five years are the most significant for brain development. And the experiences children have in their first three years are the most critical as these early experiences provide the base for the brain’s organisational development and functioning throughout life. So, whatever it is that caregivers do with them, this is the time that young children establish their foundations for language and life. Stories provide a wonderful way to develop children’s language, curiosity and thinking. Here are some ideas from the Nal’ibali reading-for-enjoyment campaign to help young children on their literacy journey:
- Read the title of the book and the name of the author and illustrator each time you read a book to your children. The first time you read a book with your children, ask them if they can guess what it might be about from listening to the title and looking at the illustration on the cover.
- Read aloud for your children until they feel they want to try reading books on their own. When you read aloud for them, you are their reading role model, teaching them invaluable knowledge about how we read books.
- Read with as much expression as you can. You may feel a little odd about doing this in the beginning but your children will appreciate it!
- Being able to guess what comes next as you are reading is a skill competent readers use all the time. As you read a story with your children, develop these prediction skills by asking; ‘What do you think will happen next?’ at different points in the story.
- Be encouraging. Value early reading and writing attempts just like you valued your baby’s first words! Young children are only just beginning to read and write and they need lots of support to develop their confidence. Listen to their pretend reading, and pretend to read what they have written. They need to behave like readers and writers to become readers and writers.
- Use your home language. First stories should be in children’s home languages. A strong foundation in a child’s home language is the basis for all successful learning, because to learn well, we need to understand well. When children know their home language well, they can learn other languages (as well as reading and writing) more easily.
- If children want to look closely at illustrations and point to particular details, it’s good to pause for a while to allow this. You can also ask them to comment on the illustrations or to find particular people or objects in the pictures, for example: “Where’s the dog? Why do you think he’s hiding there?”
- Let children ask questions too! Answer their questions or look for the answers together by re-reading the relevant parts of the story. Sometimes, if it feels as though your children are asking so many questions that the flow of the story is being interrupted, you can say, “Let’s read on and find out, shall we?” and continue reading!
- Are there some storybooks that your children ask you to read again and again? You may find your children “reading” these books on their own by looking at the pictures and telling the story. They may use a mixture of their own words with some of the actual words from the story. This is an important step in learning to read because it means that children realise that written words stay the same each time you read them.
- As children start to try to “read” on their own, they often turn the pages of the book, looking at the pictures while they make up their own story. (Sometimes they tell a different story each time!) This shows that they have learnt that the pictures give clues to what the story is about.
Choosing books for children
- Babies enjoy board books and cloth books and the bonus is that these are virtually indestructable! They respond well to brightly-coloured pictures of objects or people with simple text that has rhythm and/or rhyme.
- Children aged 2 to 5 years mostly enjoy picture books – stories that have pictures and accompanying text in them that can be read in one sitting. Stories can be about everyday life or about the imaginary worlds of kind or cruel queens, fairies, dragons and animals that talk and act like people.
- Toddlers and preschoolers enjoy books of rhymes. They also enjoy books in which the text has a strong rhythm, or in which phrases are repeated. Pop-up and flap books are also firm favourites with toddlers.
- For younger readers, look for simple plots with small amounts of text on the page and engaging illustrations. As you read more with your children, they will enjoy books that have more complex plots and more text in them.
- Choose some books that reflect things that will be familiar to your children – for example, books in which the homes look like your children’s. Choose other books that provide new experiences, such as folktales or stories set in different places and cultures.
For more tips on choosing books for children of all ages, go to www.nalibali.org.
Nal’ibali’s Storyplay Programme
Do you remember your favourite childhood story? Can you remember who told or read it to you and what it felt like? Do you remember playing when you were a child? How it felt to act out ‘house-house’, ‘robbers and tsotsi’s’ or making dolls?
Nal’ibali is working with adults and educators to make the most of stories and play for children’s language learning and early steps to reading and writing using a special approach called Storyplay.
Storyplay helps young children grow as confident, imaginative and curious learners. It is based on theories, research and experience about how babies and young children learn to think, play, problem solve and use language successfully in their listening, talking, reading and writing. It uses pretend play to bring adults and children together around books and toys in animated ways and provide a rich and meaningful story-making experience.
Using this technique,stories come alive as children act and explore each story ‘world’. They might become one of the characters, or be able to advise or solve problems on behalf of one or more of the story characters. They become independent explorers, investigators, scientists, artists, builders, readers, writers, storytellers and actors. And, in this way, caregivers and educators are able to observe skills and interests in children that may have otherwise remained hidden.
Launched in January 2015, Storyplay has been piloted at 13 schools and crèches that form part of the Ackermans Ububele Schools programme in the Western Cape and is now being introduced at Nal’ibali reading clubs. Information on how to use Storyplay at home, at school or in a reading club will be available from the Nal’ibali website in 2016.