---

COVER STORY

BOOKS : A Mighty Language Learning Tool

Research shows that reading to a child fosters development of speech and language skills in various ways. Here are the 7 rainbow pointers –

Reading builds Vocabulary 

• Books expose children to many unfamiliar words.
• There are many words which are repeated in different sentences and contexts.
• Children get to hear different words over and over again with repeated readings.

Books spark children’s interests 

• Books have colourful and bold illustrations.
• Some books have imaginary characters like princesses and dragons that encourage conversations between parents and children.
• Its simple for kids to show what they like in a book.
• Kids get opportunities to point gesture and draw attention to a picture in the book.

. Reading Improves Joint Attention and Interaction

• Books promote a parent’s responsiveness.
• Your response to your child while reading a book helps him use a variety of ways to express and communicate.
• Its easy to jointly pay attention during  reading a book which is a key skill in developing communication and interaction.
• You tend to notice more what your child is looking at and/or talking about.

Reading Improves Cognitive Skills

• Books improve attention & concentration and other cognitive skills like reasoning and categorisation.
• As books offer a calm visual activity, children tend to sit longer and attend better ( Although it depends on how interesting you make the book reading session)

Reading builds understanding of meaning of words

• Books offer a platform for kids to learn what different words mean.
• By providing a brief explanation of what you read to your child, you expand his chances to learn new words in a meaningful way.

Reading helps in learning correct grammar

• Reading books helps your child pick up the grammar in a language.
• As opposed to the simple baby talk that parents tend to do with their kids ( ‘Sia want water?’), books expose children to the correct grammatical rules ( ‘Sia, do you want water?’)

Reading promotes Social Language Development

• Reading to your child promotes his social language development.
• By gauging how the characters in a book interact with each other, children develop a social language framework. This framework allows kids to develop appropriate social language skills as they communicate more with their peers

Complete Newsletter – July 2016

ASK THE AUTHOR!

Pratiksha Gupta

M.Sc. (London)

Speech Language Pathologist

Audiologist

Pratiksha has been working with children since 2002. She has a vast experience of working in a variety of therapeutic settings with children with an array of needs such as Autism Spectrum Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder ( ADHD), Attention Deficit Disorder ( ADD), Pervasive Developmental Disorder- NOS ( PDD – NOS), Cerebral Palsy, Hearing Loss, Specific Language Impairment, Mental Retardation, Learning Disability, Dyslexia, Language delay/disorder, Apraxia of speech, Stammering, Alternative Augmentative Communication( AAC) and Voice problems.