World Book Day

Children might enjoy dressing up as characters from their favourite books and stories as we celebrate World Book Day. And why not – dressing up or taking on the role of a character can be a great way to bring stories to life!

Keeping books at the heart of our celebrations is important: they can provide a particularly joyful and impactful context for learning.

One way to put books at the heart of practice is through ‘interactive reading’. In this approach, the educator gradually passes responsibility for ‘reading’ or discussion of the book to the child. Interactive reading can positively impact children’s communication and language development, and their early literacy skills.

Evidence shows that the more children participate or respond during interactive reading, the more their oral language skills develop. Questions are often seen as a “go to” strategy for encouraging children to respond. However, asking too many can shut down the interaction. So, what else can we do to encourage children’s participation?

Here are three practices you can use to build children’s participation and understanding during interactive reading:

Extending: imitating a word or phrase the child has used, adding one or two extra words.

Imitation: encouraging children to imitate a spoken word or phrase from the text.

Completion: leaving a gap at the end of a sentence or phrase for children to complete.

It is important to give children time to think and process what they have seen and heard, before expecting them to respond. Use your professional judgement and knowledge of the children in your care when using these practices.

In this short clip, you will see childminder Rachel engaging in interactive reading with a young child. Which practices do you notice Rachel using? How does the child respond?

Interactive reading can be a powerful tool for supporting children’s communication and language development. However, if this approach is delivered equally to all children, it could widen learning gaps. So, think carefully about how you could target this approach to support children experiencing socio-economic disadvantage and those with less-well developed language skills.

Visit our Early Years Hub to explore more of the evidence for supporting children’s communication and language skills.