Wednesday 1 May 2013

How picture books boost your child's vocabulary...


From the Daily Mail
 
PUBLISHED: 1 May 2013

How picture books boost your child's vocabulary: 
 Stories with no words help because toddlers ask 
questions about what they see.
  • The study looked at 25 mothers as they read to their children at bedtime
  • Mothers use a more sophisticated form of language when they picked a picture book compared to a book with words

Books with no words are actually best for boosting 
children's language skills, a study has found.
Want to help your child develop their vocabulary? 
Pick a picture book for their bedtime story.
Books with no words are actually best for boosting 
children’s language skills, a study has found.
Experts said parents who turn to wordless storybooks 
end up spending time discussing the pictures and answering 
their toddler’s questions – exposing them to complicated words.
The study looked at 25 mothers as they read their children a set of bedtime stories. 
Psychologists from the University of Waterloo, 
Canada, found the mothers used more advanced  
language when they picked up a picture book 
compared to a book with words.
Study author professor Daniela O’Neill said: 
‘Too often parents will dismiss picture storybooks, 
especially when they are wordless, as not real reading or just for fun. 
But these findings show that reading picture storybooks 
with kids exposes them to the kind of talk that is 
really important for children to hear.
‘Mums frequently used more forms of complex talk when reading 
the picture storybook to their child than the picture-vocabulary book.’
She added: ‘Books of all kinds can build children’s language 
and literacy skills, but they do so perhaps in different ways.





 

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