Reading Without Reading

Just as kids typically understand words receptively before they use them expressively, kids learn pre-reading skills before they are able to independently read. So, what are some pre-reading skills?

• Book orientation (i.e. reading left to right)

• Letter and word correspondence and identification

• Melody and cadence of a book

• Rhyming

• Story-telling and story recall

I teach a book routine with many families I work with for speech therapy when we are targeting language skills. You don’t have to READ the book to teach expressive language, receptive language, and pre-reading skills. The routine (different than Ross and Monica’s “The Routine”) is meant to be used repetitively when you read to your kids. I recommend that parents still read to their books like you already know to, and that you do this routine or use elements of it at least 50% of the time until your child is able to focus on the story. Kids learn by repetition, so they will start to chime in with you after you show this to them a few times:

• Find the title. Before you even read the book, teach your kid to find the title of the book and to orient the book the correct way.

• “What do you think this book is about?” This is teaching your child to use context clues to look at characters or other pictures on the front of the book to make a guess of what it is about.

• “Open” This is just a simple prompt to teach your child a potentially new word, and to have them active in the reading process.

• ID on Page. This is explained in further detail with the picture below, and can be done to target receptive or expressive language.

• “Turn the page” Prompting your child to turn the page makes the reading process a little more interactive, and gives them another verbal cue to learn by repetition.

• “The End” Every time you close the book, you’ll say “The End!”.

With this page from "‘P is for Potty”, you can choose to read the words on the page, or you could focus on expressive and receptive language by using the following guide questions. The idea here is that you are showing your baby or toddler to identify words you see, point to things you mention, comment on a scene they are looking at, expand their expressive vocabulary, identify colors, and follow directions:

• Receptive Language

  • Where is the lamp?

  • Do you see Elmo?

  • Point to the window.

  • Wow! They’re coloring.

• Expressive Language

  • Who do you see?

  • What is he doing?

  • What colors do you see?

  • What toys do you see?

When choosing books for your child, look for pages with a just few pictures on them, stories that make sense, age-appropriate structure (lift the flap, word heaviness), and find books with animals or subjects that interest your child. Have fun!

If you’d like to see this concept in action, check out our FREE mini-class through the nurtured nest. You can watch the recording of the class HERE.