Bond with your child and help them improve their language skills by reading books together. Children who are familiar with literature tend to enjoy reading more and read more often. To make reading fun for non-readers, let them turn pages, point to pictures, and act out the story. Allow them to choose books that suit their age and interests and use simple language while highlighting keywords to help them understand the story. For advanced readers, use books with themes such as ‘farm’, ‘zoo’, and ‘things that go’ to expand their vocabulary across categories and word types. Ask questions throughout the reading, such as ‘what’, ‘when’, ‘where’, ‘how’, and ‘why’, to check their comprehension. Talk about the beginning, middle, and end of a story to help them understand its structure and generate their own ideas. Predict what will happen next and relate it to the characters or themes of the story to engage your child further. Reading together for a few minutes at the start or end of a busy day is a fun and engaging way to incorporate a language-rich activity into your family’s routine.

The Speech Therapy Centres of Canada is a team of dedicated speech-language pathologists (commonly known as S-LPs or speech therapists) and speech-language pathology assistants (S-LPAs)  who provide assessment and therapy services to children and adults with communication disorders.  Our S-LPS, S-LPAs and support staff are truly committed to providing the highest quality of service to our clients and their families. We understand that navigating the world of speech therapy may be daunting so our client services team is prepared to help you every step of the way.