Top Winter Books to Boost Communication

One of the best ways to help your child’s language development and communication skills is through reading. And what better time to focus on reading than when it’s cold outside? So stay warm indoors, get cozy, and check out some of our speech therapists’ favorite winter-themed storybooks and reading tips below.

Meet your child where they are at

You don’t have to read the book word-for-word! You can point to illustrations and place focus on labeling/identifying:

1. Nouns
2. Action words
3. Prepositional phrases
4. Adjectives

Make it fun and engaging by adding sound effects

For example, if someone is sleeping, make snoring sounds or “shhh” to work on early imitation skills.

Ask your child wh-questions about the story

Ask questions as you go along and about the pictures:

1. Who
2. What
3. Where
4. When
5. Why

Ask your child to re-tell the story in their own words

This can be done throughout the story and then again at the end once it’s finished.

Work on identifying and labeling emotions

Ask your child how the characters feel and why.

Have your child guess what’s going to happen

Encourage your child to predict what’s going to happen on the next page or later in the story.

The Importance of Face-to-Face Reading

While reading with little ones and children working on early imitation skills, one critical aspect is the positioning and orientation of your body. Facing your child while reading creates an optimal learning environment and can enhance language skills even more.

Reading face to face with your child strengthens:Visual and Auditory Connection

Helps children to understand how words/sounds are created by watching your mouth movements, which encourages imitation.

Joint Attention

Joint attention is when you and your child are focused and engaged with the same object or activity. Joint attention is an essential element of language development. It helps foster an environment to learn new words and helps children understand language through visual cues like gaze and pointing.

Contextual Clues

Reading face-to-face with your child supports your child’s understanding of the story. It enables your child to see your facial expressions, gestures, non-verbal cues, and intonation in your voice to emphasize words/phrases. These components can help your child build comprehension skills.

Conversation and Turn-Taking

Facing your child while reading books creates an environment for early conversation skills. By maintaining eye contact and asking/giving them opportunities to respond to or ask questions, it mimics a reciprocal/back-and-forth conversation which creates a dialogue that encourages language production and active engagement.

A few of our favorite winter stories include:

1. How to Catch A Snowman by Adam Wallace & Andy Elkerton
2. The Mitten by Jan Brett
3. Snowmen at Night by Caralyn Buehner
4. Pete the Cat by James Dean
5. The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats
6. Red Sled by Lita Judge