Nouns in shared reading

Appropriate Population: 

• School-age (or slightly below)
• Preschool. 
• Enjoys looking at pictures. 

Goal: The child will be able to understand and/or use nouns to identify and talk about things in a book.

Steps:

1. Have the child select a book they want to read with you. 
2. Look through the book together, there is no need to read cover to cover. The interaction around the book is more important than the book itself. 
3. Make comments on nouns that you see in the book. You can comment on the size, shape, colour, function of any noun you see. Keep comments short and simple.
4. Link the nouns in the book to the child’s everyday environment, activities and routines. “Oh it’s a brush, do you have a brush for your hair?” “Does dad use a hairbrush?” “Shall we pretend to use a hairbrush?” 
5. Ask the child questions to prompt them to use the nouns. “What is your favourite treasure in the picture?” “What is your favourite thing in the explorers bag?”

Step up: 

• Include more nouns.
• Use more complex sentences.
• See if the child can link the nouns to their own life experiences “Have you seen that before? when?“ 

Step down:

• Focus on steps three and four.
• Use simple repetitive sentences, or single words. 

Resources:

• Child’s choice of book.
• To get more ideas you might like to read the handout Sharing books with preschoolers, the Hanen way.