How to help your child love reading and develop vocabulary from an early age.
The life of modern children literally from the first days is surrounded by all kinds of gadgets that help to keep the child busy and provide his leisure time. Therefore, very often you can hear parents complaining that the child does not want to read, preferring to play better with a computer or tablet. At the same time, reading is a vital necessity for all generations at all times. And it's not just about the ability to read the street name or instructions for any gadget. Reading helps your child expand vocabulary, which in turn makes learning easier in school.
How can we help today's children love books? Everything is trite: you need to read as much as possible with your child, discuss what you read and generally talk a lot. These tips apply to all ages, even toddlers, as a book's positive impact on language development begins at birth. Moreover, if you want your child to also speak English or some other language in the future, then reading books with him is also better in different languages from the very first days.
0 to 1 year
Of course, at this age, children understand little, even in Russian, at least in any other language. Therefore, it is important not so much to read and understand the meaning with the kids, but to look at the pictures together, describe them to the child, study books together. So the child will get used to the book as an important and interesting subject, and this interest will grow with him.
The preference should be given to hard cardboard books with dense pages or soft ones, where the pages rustle, you can press, bite, etc. It will be interesting for the child to turn the pages himself and in addition to the reading experience, such books will give the child an interesting experience of tactile sensations.
1-3 years old
At this age, tactile sensations are still important for children, plus you need to connect all kinds of exercises for the hands that contribute to the development of speech. Therefore, choose interactive books for study in which various parts move, unfold, spin, etc. Pay attention to print quality: colors should be bright, but not flashy, illustrations should be large, and captions should, on the contrary, be short.
Try to captivate the child with expressive reading: read in different voices, connect gestures, sounds. And involve the child in the game: let him also wash like a kitten from a book, or dance like children at a New Year's party. Encourage the child to finish the sentences himself, if this is not the first time you read the book, specifically pause in reading so that the child is involved in the game.
Let your child talk as he reads, as this will help you win his full attention. For example, stop and ask simple questions: "Who is this?" or "What is this?" After the child answers, praise him and say his answer again, paraphrasing it. For example: “Well done! This is a cloud. Fluffy white cloud”. And as the baby's vocabulary develops, ask more what happened to the characters in the book, why, etc. So, in addition to developing speech, you will also stimulate the development of the child's fantasy.
You need to start classes with kids from 5-10 minutes a day, gradually increasing this time.
4 to 5 years old
At this age, it is important for a child to feel connected, so try to choose books in which the story is about children of a similar age or about animals. Books that talk about various situations from a child's usual daily life, for example, about a trip to the zoo or an incident in kindergarten, as well as about how interesting things are done or work for him (machines, devices, how our body works, etc. etc.).
Ask your child to read aloud, help him highlight intonation. Link what you read with real life, for example: "Look, the cat from the book is very similar to our Vaska, only in the book he is black, and ours is red!" or “And you are wearing a shirt today, just like the boy from the book!”.
Ask your child questions about what you read, discuss different situations that happened to the characters in the book and come up with a different development for them. Let the child come up with questions for you about the content of the book and, for example, check how carefully you listened.
Place the books in such a place so that the child has access to it and he himself can choose which book he will read today. It is not necessary to force him to finish reading one story first, and only then move on to another - you can take books according to your mood, but before you start reading, remember where you left off last time and what the plot was.
