Interacting with babies and toddlers is important to their development. You can give your child a great start by talking, singing, playing and sharing simple books together even if you aren’t a confident reader yourself.

Here are some tips for shared reading time with your child:

• Find a comfortable place to sit and read together.
• Hold the book so your child can see the pages clearly.
• Show your child how to open the book and turn the pages.
• Run your finger along the lines as you read to show that print is read from left to right and to help with word recognition.
• Encourage your child to point at objects and talk about the pictures.
• Draw your child’s attention to key words in the story by pointing and inviting them to say the word too  “This word is ‘garden’. Can you say ‘garden’?”
• Reread books or sections of books that your child enjoys.
• Once or twice during reading stop and ask your child to predict what might happen next.
• Encourage your child to connect with the story by asking them:
  • how they feel about things that happen in the story “How did you feel when the girl fell off her bike?”
  • to picture themselves in the story “What would you do if you were this boy?”
  • to recall personal experiences similar to those in the story “Tell me about a time when you made a new friend.”
• Tease out things that might be confusing or challenging in the story “Why do you think she wanted to do that?”
• Be supportive and positive.
• Have fun!

These stories, which include aspects of health literacy in the plot, are aimed at older children to be read and enjoyed independently. They can also be used as the basis of parent-child, small group or whole-class discussion.