Building Language with Books

       

Children LOVE storybooks. I hear parents say things all the time like, “We read to our child every night”, "She loves books!", and “My son loves reading”. We've all heard how important it is to read to our children. For children with language delay, sometimes being read to just isn't enough. 

When I use storybooks with my language delayed kiddos, there are certain techniques that I use that have been proven to be help improve a child's language. With these techniques we're able to work on improving 

• the understanding of concepts like "in", "off", "hot", "cold"
• comprehension
• vocabulary
• sentence structure
• grammar  
• and vocabulary!

 Many therapists refer this technique as "scaffolding". I personally enjoy using it with my preschoolers but it works for all ages. 

What is scaffolding?

Let me give you an analogy. In construction work, scaffolding wraps around the outside of a building to give it temporary support. Language scaffolding involves an adult building onto a child's language as a way to guide them into using longer sentences with a bigger vocabulary. 

Where do I begin? 

You begin by choosing a storybook.You can scaffold with just about any picture book. I recommend choosing a story that your child already knows and has clear, interesting pictures on each page. If you're looking for book suggestions, books written as a collection or a series are fantastic. I think I probably own the entire Clifford series! You could also go with stories featuring a character that your child likes. (Dora the Explorer, anyone?) "Clifford" and most "Dora" books are great because they have a beginning, middle, and end. 

Once you or your child has picked out a book, you're ready to begin! I like to start by drawing attention to the cover picture by pointing and saying, "Look..." That's it. Just "Look", or maybe "Look! there's ...". The goal is to lead the child into talking about or pointing to the picture on their own. Once your child starts talking about the book (or pointing to it), it's time to scaffold.

The next step is to interpret what you child meant when they pointed to a picture or made a comment because you're going to respond to them in 1 of 3 ways... 

Notice that scaffolding does not mean that we are asking tons of questions while we read. It’s important to ask questions sometimes, but simply asking questions does not build language. You should be asking your child questions in order to gauge their understanding. 

The 3 words to remember when building language are…. 
PAUSE
EXPAND
MODEL

Clear as mud? Here are a few examples to show you what scaffolding looks like.

Child: meow
Adult: the cat meowed and said I’m going to…
Child: eat that cupcake

Adult: The boy said…
Child: Let’s go
Adult: to the…
Child: toy store.

Adult: The girl wants to give the cat...
Child: *points*
Adult: a…
Child: cupcake
Adults: because the cat ….
Child: is hungry.
Adult: The cat is hungry.

You Can Do This!

Scaffolding is easy once you’ve practiced a few times. You may want to choose a book and practice by yourself a few times. Anticipate what you think your child may comment on and what your response will sound like. Practice a few times with your child. I encourage you to use the same storybook for this activity more than once. Your scaffolding will improve, and your child will have the opportunity to build on they already know!

That's it! Just remember: PAUSE, EXPAND, MODEL 

Oh, and HAVE FUN!!!


Kayla Fontenot, M.S. CCC-SLP