Story time is such a special bonding activity to do with your little ones. Whether you’re curling up on the sofa together with the latest Julia Donaldson or you’re lulling your little one off to sleep with the bed-time tale from David Williams, reading is a brilliant way to engage with your children and help develop their literacy and speaking skills.
Here at Little Willows, we think that, in today’s largely digital world, traditional paper books are more important than ever – and a new study from America seems to agree with us!
The research, published recently in the medical journal Paediatrics, found that when parents read to their children using traditional print books, there were more verbalisation’s than there were when using electronic devices like tablets. And when we say verbalisation’s we mean there was a lot more interaction between the parent and child, with the parent asking things like ‘what’s going on here?’ and ‘Do you remember when we did something like this?’
“The tablet itself made it harder for parents and children to engage in the rich back-and-forth turn-taking that was happening in print books,” said the author of the study, Dr Tiffany Munzer, talking to the New York Times.
She also noted that there were a lot more negative-related comments when using the tablet, like ‘don’t touch that button’, which we can all relate to!
If the end goal is to promote dialogue and conversation skills with your child, it seems the good old print book beats the tablet hands down!
In a separate study, it was found that children who are read 5 books a day by their parents start nursery having heard 1.4 million more words than those children who were never read to. This ‘million word gap’ as it’s known, could go some way to explaining the differences in reading and vocabulary development in young children.
If you’re looking for a new book to read over the Easter holidays,The Book Trust has suggested 100 titles that are perfect for the 0-5 year olds including some old classics like Meg and Mog, The Tiger Who Came To Tea and Room on the Broom.
Here at Little Willows, we do all we can to help children develop their reading skills. Each of our playrooms has a range of books for the children to access as and when they want. They can explore these independently or take the book to an adult and read together. We also read stories during group times and enjoy exploring the stories even further by acting them out, making our own props and acting out the story lines as the characters themselves!
If you haven’t been to one of our Little Willows sites in Bath or Corsham yet, why not call the team to arrange a visit?
