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Give them a boost - teach language through books

May 09, 2007|Debbie Richardson

Speech-language pathologists are in the business of helping students understand and use language in their daily lives.

Those of us who work in public schools are focused on language needed in the school setting. Many of our students need help developing oral language skills.

A fun approach to language learning uses books. "Books Are for Talking, Too," the title of an instructional resource on my shelf, sums up this idea.

Reading aloud and sharing in the magic of a book is a treasured experience. Most of us have fond childhood memories of someone reading to us. Reading is fun while at the same time we can learn something. We learn to speak by hearing someone else talk and interacting with them. Interacting with kids while reading a book also helps them learn language.

Students receiving speech-language services at school may be focusing on learning specific language skills. They may need to focus on vocabulary (learning the meanings of words), morphology (learning word endings), syntax (learning the order of words within a sentence), phonology (learning the sound structure of language), or pragmatics (learning the social aspect of language). Any of these skills may be addressed by the speech-language pathologist using books.

An added bonus is that while you read together children may also develop literacy and narrative skills. We all know the importance of reading and writing in the world today.

How may times have you heard that parents need to read to their children? Reading to children contributes to their success in reading at school. What you may not have known is that reading to children and interacting while you read can boost their language skills as well.

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