Reading Without Books
Caroline Erdos, Literacy Expert
Dr. Erdos is a consultant for the Sir Wilfrid Laurier School Board in Quebec and a speech-language pathology advisor for Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology Canada. Prior to this, she was ALDI Coordinator (Advancing Learning in Differentiation & Inclusion) for the 10 English school boards in Quebec, Canada, where she supported resource teachers through various professional development initiatives. Caroline has over 20 years’ experience as a pediatric speech-language pathologist in a tertiary care centre and has worked as a language and literacy consultant and a legal expert in speech-language pathology. Her areas of expertise include bilingualism and multilingualism, reading impairment, oral language impairment, foetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and craniofacial disorders. She has guest lectured at Université de Montréal, McGill University, and the McGill University Health Centre. She has also given workshops at numerous conferences across North America and has written and collaborated on several publications.
There are many ways to engage a child in reading and many of these do not involve books. They are just as valuable as book reading, however. These activities build a child’s vocabulary and knowledge about the world. They may also expose the child to print and the conventions of print (directionality, punctuation), or build knowledge about story structure.
Here are some of these literacy-building activities:
Following a recipe – in addition to exposure to print, this activity exposes children to the importance of sequence and paying attention to pictures that support the text. Recipes are also great to build math skills.
Identifying familiar logos as you are driving – logo identification is a precursor to reading. Many children “read” signs like McDonald’s or ToysRus before they learn to read regular print. Celebrate this as it makes children feel proud to be a reader.
Writing and reading a grocery list – do not move away from your child when writing your grocery list, involve them in the process. Let them draw a picture of the item or use invented spelling as they write “aplz” or “tsheez”. Ask them to hold the list and “read” items back to you as you walk through the grocery aisles.
Reading instructions to assemble a game or furniture – children love to help, so involve them in this process.
Telling someone about their day – there are actually a lot of literacy-related skills that go into narrating one’s day to someone else. From recalling the correct sequence of events to using precise vocabulary, taking the other’s perspective and providing enough details, using complex sentences to express causation or make a comparison. You might help your child acquire these skills by practising the retell in advance (“What are we going to tell Grandma about our day yesterday?”).
Describing pictures – budding artists love nothing more than to walk you through the meaning of their drawings. You can also use this as an opportunity to model more complex sentence structure (“Oh, the dragon is running because the forest is on fire!”) or to write key words or phrases that they dictate for you to write under their drawing.
There are many ways to lay the groundwork for reading. Reading books is only one of them. So, mix it up with these activities and have fun!
