Babies, Toddlers and Preschoolers

What are the benefits of sharing books with Preschoolers?

Reading with your child helps to lay the building blocks for independent reading later on and is a wonderful experience for parents to share with their children.

• Shared reading promotes bonding and communication
• Children learn important skills such as how to hold a book, turn pages and reading words from left to right
• Books expose children to a wide variety of ideas, words and concepts
• Spending time with you and books helps to build a lifelong love of reading

How do you share books with preschoolers?

• Ask your child to tell you about the pictures and make predictions about what will happen next
• Encourage your child to retell parts of a favorite story or one that has been read several times
• Allow your child to participate by selecting the book, turning pages and offering repetitive phrases
• Use expression and vary tone to bring the book to life
• Draw your child's attention to print by examining unique, large or expressive fonts

Look for books that have . . . 

• predictable stories and plots
• silly books that play with words
• simple information books
• stories that are easy to retell
• themes that are interesting to your child
• topics about the world around them
• alphabet, numbers and counting