Asylum Dr. Kessler offered a number of helpful ideas for parents to consider when picking out children’s books for young children ages 2 to 4:
- Consider vocabulary—It’s also important to look at the language used in the book. Children crave learning and understanding new words and ideas. Books that can expose children to new words can help expand their vocabulary and keep them interested in reading.
- Check out the illustrations—In addition to vocabulary, illustrations are also very important. Parents can use the pictures in books to help expand ideas in the story and promote understanding. Parents can also help children focus on the story by asking questions about the illustrations like, “what do you see”?
- Any lessons learned? Books that compare ideas are often interesting to young children and teach important lessons. Look for books that introduce simple concepts like how things grow and that compare and contrast ideas like big-little or brave-scared. Books that describe and compare ideas are also presenting new information to children which make them very popular among young, curious thinkers.
- Is it interesting? Finally, it is important to look at the content and see if it matches your child’s interests. As a parent, flip through the book and see how you can expand the reading experience for your child.
January 5th, 2009 at 11:07 am
I learned the hard way that you need to read everything before reading a book to your child. I bought a classic nursery rhyme book and started to read it to my daughter. I had to skip over lines, or make quick changes because the classic version of some of our old favorites are not suitable for a young child.
September 25th, 2009 at 1:45 pm
best book as i work in nursery reading to children it just the best way of teaching ./.