The importance of reading to rchildren cannot be overestimated. Reading is critical for language development, but also for children’s personal development, for acquiring the ability to understand oneself and the world and to elaborate experiences. It goes without saying that for bilingual children reading is also essential to stimulate language. However the link between reading a language can be made stronger by associating reading with language stimulating activities.

I recently read a very interesting article on language stimulating techniques. The article has been written by a speech therapist on her blog Tinyeye, and was initially meant to address techniques that can be associated with video or computer games, however they work very well with books too. When interacting with the games or videos, but also when you are reading, make a point to use some language stimulation techniques. For example:

Wait and watch: Look at your child to see what he is looking at – then give it a name. i.e.) Rocket! You see a red rocket!
Describe: Be the commentator who occasionally says, WHOOSH! … Ohhh bumpy ride!…That’s a big dog!….You picked blue!. If you are consistent with what you comment on, your child may start to automatically comment on the same types of pictures or actions. For example, if you say 1 2 3 BLAST OFF or GO every time the rockets flies, your child may start to do that on his own.
Silence: No need to talk all the time – leave space for the child to make comments, to process information, or to just enjoy. He is learning by doing.
Copy Cat and Expand: To grow language, imitate what your child says. (He says, doddie – you day DOGGIE!). Then take one more step by adding one more word, as in BIG DOGGIE!
Repeat x 3: If you were learning a new language, you would need to hear a word over and over again to really understand how to say it and what it represented. Keep this in mind when you are naming objects and pictures. For example, if the picture or object is a bus, you might casually say bus…bus… bus!… hi bus!!!
Earn it to Learn it: Help your child learn that his listening ears and words are magical because when he listens or uses his words, cool things happen on the screen. Maybe the magic word for making the rocket fly is GO! Each time, your child is encouraged to say GO (before you click the mouse to make it go). Pick a word or sentence that fits your child’s success level.
Helpful Word: Use the activities as an opportunity to learn useful self advocacy and social words such as: hi, bye, help, again, more, done, yes, no, my turn, your turn, please, thank you…