Let your child be the learner

Let the child have an active role by holding the book and turning the pages to “help” you read. This will help your child to enjoy reading and be part of the activity. They will learn about when it is the right time to turn the page or how to hold the book the right way up, and it can be a fun experience you share together.

Let the Child:

• Hold the book
• Turn the pages
• Turn the wheels, open the flaps or anything else the child can touch, feel or open
• Choose the book to read, and
• Where to read the book

Tell the child:

• How to hold the book
• When to turn the page
• What direction to turn the page
• That they are helping and doing a good job!

Suggested Book: Turn and Learn (Bumblelee Books, 2003)
Reason for Book Choice: This book has many wheels that you can turn on every page of the book to find something new.

*Excerpted from Development of Emergent Literacy in English Language Learning Children Through Parent Shared Reading by Tanya L. Wren, Pathways Children Centre, Windsor, Ontario and Genese Warr-Leeper , University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario.

*Warr-Leeper, G., Wren, T., & K. Washington (2006). Facilitating emergent literacy skills in English language learners: The value of team work and collaboration. OSLA Connection Journal, 2(2), 12-16.