Your toddler will have had lots of experiences sharing books and rhymes now and might have a few favourites that they ask you to share over and over again. This repetition will help them to remember their favourite stories and rhymes and they will begin to join in with parts of their favourite stories and rhymes.
Sharing books is a relaxing and enjoyable activity for you and your toddler. Your toddler will learn from sharing books, even before they can read themselves. [1] Sharing books with your toddler will support the development of their memory and their knowledge of language. As they hear the same story again and again, and as you look at the pictures together they will begin to remember key parts of the story. Researchers have found that the interactions you have when sharing a book with your toddler help them to remember the story. [2]
The interaction that you have with your toddler when sharing a book might be similar to that when you are saying rhymes or singing. Rhymes and songs help your toddler tune into words as there is an emphasis on certain words or syllables in a rhyme or song. This emphasis might also be present in key phrases in a story and will help your child to remember parts of stories, rhymes and songs. [3]
The language and patterns of language in stories, songs and rhymes support your toddler to tune into language and remember parts of songs. However, one of the key elements of sharing stories, rhymes and songs is the opportunity these activities give you to spend time with your toddler. As Caspar Addyman says, “We sing and chat to our babies to them know they are our babies.” [3]
Sharing stories, rhymes and songs can be a wonderful opportunity for ‘serve and return’ interactions. As you share a story or rhyme you will probably notice what interests your child and respond to their interests. This might be looking a little longer at a picture or commenting about the picture they have noticed to give them the language to describe what they have seen. It could be repeating a story, rhyme or song many times or pausing to give your toddler the opportunity to say a word or phrase.
As your child’s language, cognitive and visual skills develop they might enjoy sharing books with more complex pictures or with longer sentences. They might choose to look at books on their own sometimes or retell a story to their teddy! You might notice them singing to themselves, perhaps whilst playing or when they first wake up.
References
[1] Horst J.S. and Houston-Price C (2015) Editorial: An Open Book: What and How Young Children Learn from Picture and Story Books. Front. Psychol. 6:1719.doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01719
[2] Grennholt, A.F., Beyer, A.M., & Curtis, J. (2014) More than pretty pictures? How illustrations affect parent-child story reading and children’s story recall. In Open Book: What and How Young Children Learn from Picture and Story Books. Front. Psychol. 6:1719.doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01719
[3] Addyman, C (2020) The laughing baby: The extraordinary science behind what makes babies happy. London: Unbound.