Sharing stories helps toddlers develop their talking skills, as well as their reading.
Being able to tell a story can be as simple as sharing what you did at the weekend, and having the right words to do this is important for toddlers.
Speech and language therapist sca chatted to us about how to make the most of story time with your child.
Watch the video below to see her tips in action at The Toddler Club.
Creating a positive vibe around stories will have such a strong impact on your child's imagination and their relationship with books.
Using your imagination as a toddler can really help with your story writing at school when you're older.
Sharing stories with your child that have moments where they can in is a great way to keep them engaged and give them confidence to in.
And including movements like jump and mix is a fun way to help your children link words and actions.
Your child might use hand signs to communicate in storytelling like Elena and her mum.
So you might be able to start communicating with your little one much sooner than you'd think.
Your child might even take the lead in storytelling, making up a different beginning, middle or end. Before you know it, you'll be telling stories together.
sca's top tips for reading with your toddler
- Listening and ing in with stories will show your toddler the right words to use when they are building sentences
- If your child has an interest they will be much more likely to engage with a story. If your child loves dogs, choose books that have dogs in them.
- Make it easy for your toddler to focus in your reading space and turn off any background noise.
- Sharing stories with your little one should be fun, so don’t treat it as a chore.
- Let your toddler lead sometimes. They might show you lots more talking if they read their version of the book out loud to you.
Did you know a toddler will learn up to 8 new words a day? Sharing stories will expand your child's vocabulary.
Why reading the same book repeatedly is good for your toddler
With toddlers, it's best not to read a book once and never revisit it.
Repeating a book regularly with your toddler will help them learn much more at this age.
Lots of books have repetitive phrases in them that can help your child learn full sentences. Some examples are:
- “But he was STILL hungry” - The Very Hungry Caterpillar
- “Doesn’t he know there is no such thing as a Gruffalo” - The Gruffalo
- “We cant go over it, we cant go under it oh no we’ll have to go through it” - We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
When a child reads or hears the same book multiple times, they become familiar and comfortable with a greater number of words. If you've memorised the book, your child probably has too!
Sharing stories around Tiny Happy People
We've got loads of advice for looking at books with your child across our website. Here are some of our favourite bits:
- Find out how to supercharge your bedtime stories.
- Check out this fun reading books with toddler activity.
- Why does your toddler like to hear the same story over and over?
Want more? You can watch the full series of The Toddler Club on BBC iPlayer right now!
