Storytelling is an essential skill for children as they move through school. Stories help expand vocabulary, teach different sentence structures and help children write stories in class. Storytelling is also important for friendships and relationships.
When a child comes home from school, one of the first questions many parents ask them is, ‘What did you do today?’. This simple-sounding question draws on a huge range of skills: remembering events, having the vocabulary to express and sequence ideas, being able to create full sentences, and making sure that what they’re saying is clear, concise and has enough information that others know what they are talking about. Skip any of these, and the words that come out of the child’s mouth may be very hard to follow!
So how can parents start helping their children at home? A great way to build storytelling skills is through reading books with your child. Helping your child enjoy books early on will set them up for later literacy success, as well as supporting language growth. As your child enters school, following these steps can help foster an interest in books – and where there’s interest, growth soon follows!
As tempting as it can be to ask lots of questions while reading a book with your child, try to balance them with comments. Aim for four comments for every question you ask. This keeps your child engaged and helps them see reading as fun rather than homework.
For book ideas, we recommend Book Share Time, developed by WA speech pathologist Cecile. You can filter books by age, concepts, narrative structure, rhyme, sounds and more.
How we can help: Language →