Bibliotherapy: How Books can Help Your Child

It is well known that children benefit academically from reading books. Schools require children to build

reading skills very early on. However, even beyond the academic reasons for reading books, children can also experience other amazing benefits. The benefits can be experienced when children read books to themselves as well as when others read books to them.

3 BENEFITS OF BOOKS FOR CHILDREN

1. Improves children’s ability to manage potentially stressful life events

Some children’s books are written specifically about experiences that children might find difficult, such as going to the dentist or having divorced parents. Reading these types of books to children can help them to feel more comfortable with the situation and can prepare them for what they are experiencing or what they will experience.

2. Increases feelings recognition and management

As children develop, they learn about emotions (their own and other people’s). In order to grown into a healthy, well-balanced adult, children must learn how to recognize what emotions they have, what emotions others have, how emotions are experienced, and what to do about them or how to behave in response to an emotion. To do this, books can teach important skills that will help them learn appropriate behaviours for different emotions as well as to be more aware and accepting of feelings in general.

3. Enhances relationships

When parents read books to their children, the bond between them increases. Reading allows for a time when both parent and child can relax, connect with one another, and be in a moment in which they do not have to worry about the demands of everyday life. Reading can also enhance a relationship between siblings. For instance, an older sibling can read to their younger sibling which can create a positive bond between them.

Reading with your Child

Dear Parents,

Please read this great article by Multilit, from Macquarie University, about reading with your child.

You can support your child in learning to read by reading with your child every day.

Here are some helpful hints.

1.Set the scene.  Before you read the story, tell your child the title of the book and a bit about it. Try to relate it to your child’s own experience, if you can. If it is about dogs, talk about a dog they know. You can also discuss what might happen in the story.

2. Read the book.  Read the story in a lively way with lots of expression. If you come across unfamiliar words, stop and tell your child what they mean. This improves your child’s vocabulary and helps them to understand the whole story. During the week, you might also like to remind your child of some of the new words from the story book and relate them to your everyday life.

3. Recalling the story.  After reading the book, ask your child questions about the story. For example, “What happened at the beginning of the story?” or “What happened at the end of the story?”. If they can’t remember, tell them. You might also want to try asking different types of questions that require more than a yes or no answer. For example, “Why do you think the little green dragon was so sad?” These sorts of questions help to develop your child’s language skills.

You don’t need to read a different book for every session; in fact, rereading the same book several times allows the child to become familiar with the story and helps them to learn new vocabulary.

Finally, being patient and enthusiastic will make reading together a much more positive experience for both you and your child. Have fun!

VOCABULARY

Some facts about Vocabulary from a talk given at Roseville College

• Vocabulary begins with oral language.  
• 5-6 year olds know between 2500-500 words when they start school.
• Students learn about 3000-4000 words per year.
• The more words you learn the easier it becomes to learn more words.  Networking in the brain improves and connects with other things. It becomes about making connections with the known.
• Vocabulary size is important: evidence shows the more words you know the more successful you are in life.

There are 3 layers to vocabulary instruction:

1. Encoding - introducing new words
2. Storage - practice makes permanent it;s important to encourage children to speak the words
3. Retrieval - reviewing for automaticity

The more we read and talk to children about their reading the better their learning.
Pictures are important as they display word consciousness

New words need to be 'played around with' multiple times to be internalised and committed to memory.

Wordsmiths (creators of words in history) - Shakespeare, Dr Seuss, Lewis Carroll

So go on, get talking and get reading and have some fun!