We all know that reading to and with your child is very important! There are countless studies that show how many words children hear in the first few years of their life impact their educational trajectory and life. Did you know there are a couple of things you could be doing with your toddler before you read a book to help build their CONCEPTS ABOUT PRINT? These are skills and knowledge that we do automatically as fluent readers but children need support and practice to learn them as new, emergent readers!
- LOCATE THE PARTS OF A BOOK: Make it fun and get excited as they point to the front cover, back cover, spine, and circle the title with their finger.
- MAKE A PREDICTION AND ASK FOLLOW UP QUESTIONS BASED ON THE FRONT COVER: Read the title and ask, “What do you think this book will be about?” Then ask follow up questions, or a feedback loop, like, “Why do you think that? What in the picture makes you think this will happen?” By using feedback loops, you are discovering what they already know about the topic and uncovering any misconceptions that you can address within the story later on.
- REVIEW THE ROLES OF THE AUTHOR AND ILLUSTRATOR: Read the author and illustrator’s name to your child and ask what they do. I find it helpful to use big hand gestures and act out the author writing and the illustrator drawing or painting a picture to help them remember!
- DO A PICTURE WALK: Before reading, look at the pictures and have your child tell you what they think is happening on each page. Ask, “Does this match what you thought about the book on the front cover?” This is an important step because you are reinforcing to them that they ARE readers and can read books independently by reading the pictures!
- ASK PRINT ORIENTATION QUESTIONS: Turn to the first page and say, “Point to the picture. Point to the words. Where should I start reading?” If your child has mastered these skills, point to the last word on the first line of a page and ask, “Where should I read next?” They should use a return sweep and point to the first word on the second line of that page. You can do the same thing for the last word on the page and have them point to the first word on the next page.
- BONUS TIP! DO LETTER VERSUS WORD PRACTICE: You can use a story that has one line of text on each page with around 5 words on each page. Flip to a page and ask your child to count the words on the page, the spaces in between the words, and how many letters are in a word on the page. This will help your child learn to differentiate between letters and words.
Doing these things with your child before reading a book will help them with their print awareness, orientation, and begin to have them make predictions about a text based on the pictures. They are reading the book by reading the pictures….this is huge! Have fun reading with your children!
In the comment section below, please write other strategies you use to build Print Concepts with your child!
Chris says
You are such a great teacher!!!