Reading with your child can be a lovely part of the day. It might happen curled up together before bed, during a quiet afternoon at home or when your child brings you the same favourite book for what feels like the hundredth time.
Shared reading is doing much more than telling a story.
Books give children opportunities to hear new words, listen to different sentence structures, learn about ideas beyond their everyday experiences and practise having back-and-forth interactions with you.
And you don’t need to read for long or finish every page for it to be valuable.
For young children, some of the richest language learning happens when you slow down, notice what has caught their attention and enjoy the book together.
- How does reading help language development?
- Books introduce children to new words
- Reading helps children hear how sentences work
- Stories help children understand and tell stories
- Reading can create opportunities for conversation
- What about speech sounds and early literacy?
- You don’t need to read a book perfectly
- Choosing books for language development
- Reading is one part of supporting communication
How does reading help language development?
Children learn language through everyday interactions with the people around them. Reading creates another opportunity for those interactions to happen.
Think about a book about animals. Your child might hear words such as giraffe, enormous, spots, stretching or behind—words that may not come up very often while you are getting dressed or making breakfast.
Books also give children repeated opportunities to hear how words fit together into sentences and how a story unfolds from beginning to end.
Over time, shared reading can support areas such as:
- vocabulary
- understanding words and sentences
- learning new concepts
- listening and attention
- telling and understanding stories
- early literacy skills
- back-and-forth communication.
If you’d like to understand more about how children’s communication develops more broadly, our Speech Therapy for kids A Parent Guide explains the different areas of speech and language development that pediatric speech pathology support. Many families find that learning about these areas helps them recognize when therapy might be beneficial.
Books introduce children to new words
One of the biggest benefits of reading with children is vocabulary development.
Everyday conversations naturally contain lots of useful language, but books can introduce words and ideas that children may not regularly encounter.
A trip to the park might involve slide, swing and run. A book could take you into space, under the ocean, onto a farm or inside a construction site—all without leaving the couch.
Pictures also help children connect a new word with what it means. If you’re reading about a character who is exhausted, for example, the illustration and the story around the word provide clues to its meaning.
Children don’t need to remember every new word the first time they hear it. Hearing words again across books, conversations and everyday experiences helps build their understanding over time.
Reading helps children hear how sentences work
Books expose children to more than individual words. They also expose them to different ways of putting those words together.
A child might hear:
“The dog is running.”
But stories can introduce more complex language:
“The muddy dog ran quickly through the garden because he was chasing the bird.”
As children’s language develops, hearing a variety of sentences helps build their understanding of grammar and how ideas can be connected.
You don’t need to teach grammar while you’re reading. Simply sharing stories and talking about what’s happening gives children opportunities to hear rich language in a meaningful context.
Stories help children understand and tell stories
Being able to tell a story is an important language skill.
Children gradually learn that stories have characters, events and sequences. Something happens first, something happens next and eventually there is an ending.
Books provide lots of examples of this structure.
As children get older, you might notice them beginning to talk about what happened in a story, predict what could happen next or connect an event in the book with something that happened to them.
These skills are useful beyond story time. Children use them when telling you what happened at kindergarten, explaining an experience to a friend or eventually understanding and creating written stories at school.
Reading can create opportunities for conversation
Reading doesn’t have to mean an adult reads every word while the child sits quietly and listens.
In fact, some of the most valuable moments happen when you stop reading.
Your child might point to something interesting, make a sound, say a word or turn back to a favourite page. These are all opportunities for interaction.
You can respond by commenting on what they’re looking at, adding a word or two, or simply waiting to see what they do next.
For example, if your child points and says, “Dog!”, you might respond:
“Yes, a big dog!”
or
“The dog is running!”
You’ve added a little more language without turning the book into a lesson.
If you’d like more practical ideas like these, How to Read With Your Child to Support Language Development explains simple strategies you can use during story time – many of which are also recommended in childrens speech therapy sessions to encourage natural back‑and‑forth exchange.
What about speech sounds and early literacy?
Reading also gives children opportunities to notice the sounds and patterns within words.
Rhyming books, repetitive phrases and books with lots of sound play can help children become aware that words are made up of different sounds. This awareness becomes increasingly important as children begin developing early literacy skills.
This doesn’t mean reading a particular book will correct a child’s speech sound difficulties. Rather, books provide another enjoyable context for listening to and playing with language. If you have concerns about your child’s articulation or clarity, a therapist can assess whether additional support is needed – this is a core part of therapy.
If you’re concerned about how clearly your child is speaking or their broader communication development, it may be helpful to look at our Speech Development Milestones for an overview of skills that develop as children grow.
You don’t need to read a book perfectly
Families sometimes worry that their child won’t sit through a whole story, keeps turning the pages or wants the same book every night.
That’s okay.
For a toddler, reading might mean looking at three pages and talking about the pictures. Another child might want you to read every word. Some children love repeating familiar books because knowing what comes next makes it easier for them to join in.
There isn’t one “right” way to share a book.
Following your child’s interests can often lead to much richer interactions than trying to finish the story exactly as it is written.
Choosing books for language development
You don’t need special “educational” books to support language.
Look for books your child enjoys and wants to return to. Depending on their age and interests, this might include books with:
- clear and engaging pictures
- repetition
- predictable phrases
- rhyme and rhythm
- actions or sounds your child can copy
- familiar everyday experiences
- interesting characters and events to talk about.
A favourite book that your child wants to share with you again and again can offer plenty of opportunities for language.
Reading is one part of supporting communication
Reading is a wonderful way to create opportunities for language, but it is only one part of how children learn to communicate.
Talking while you are getting dressed, playing together, singing songs, going to the shops and chatting in the car all provide opportunities for children to hear and use language.
If you are concerned about your child’s communication, you also don’t need to feel that you simply need to “read more” and wait.
Families often come to us after trying lots of helpful things at home but still feeling unsure about their child’s development. A pediatric speech pathologist can help you understand your child’s individual communication skills and whether additional support may be useful.