How to improve reading aloud to my child.
Discussion
I'm not terrible, though I'm sure there are accents, inflections and emphasises that I could improve on when reading books aloud to my child. I'm never going to be Simon Callow or Charles Dance, but I know my narration is not as fluid or engrossing as it could be.
Are there any resources for improving this? A quick Google doesn't yield anything useful and tends to point me towards improving my child's reading ability, or courses for illiterate adults. Perhaps some sort of acting school or similar?
She is only 14 months at the moment, but if I start improving now, by the time she is ready for books with mildly complicated narrative I hope I'll be sending her to sleep with my dulcet tones, or keeping her awake as she cries for one more chapter.
Are there any resources for improving this? A quick Google doesn't yield anything useful and tends to point me towards improving my child's reading ability, or courses for illiterate adults. Perhaps some sort of acting school or similar?
She is only 14 months at the moment, but if I start improving now, by the time she is ready for books with mildly complicated narrative I hope I'll be sending her to sleep with my dulcet tones, or keeping her awake as she cries for one more chapter.
Reading a story aloud is hard, because it involves doing three things at once : reading, comprehending, and speaking.
In order to tell the story, rather than just make the sounds of the words, you must pre-read at least half a sentence, sometimes considerably more, depending on the events in the story and the structure of the sentence. This gives you time to understand what you've just read. Only then can you, knowing the meaning of the words as well as their arrangement, speak them in a manner that makes sense.
While you're saying the part you've just understood, you are, of course, reading the next bit...
Speed is key; when you can read at conversational speed using only part of your attention, you have capacity left to speak as well.
Familiarity is also very useful. Stories for toddlers can often be learned by rote, with only an occasional glance at the text to ensure you stay on course.
With older children and more complicated works, having read the material beforehand is still very useful. If it's something you read often as a child, you'll probably still have a good idea where it's going. If its a new book, enjoy it yourself a few times before 'performing' with it.
It's a few years since I read to my boys, but they and I remember those times fondly. It's certainly worth the effort!
In order to tell the story, rather than just make the sounds of the words, you must pre-read at least half a sentence, sometimes considerably more, depending on the events in the story and the structure of the sentence. This gives you time to understand what you've just read. Only then can you, knowing the meaning of the words as well as their arrangement, speak them in a manner that makes sense.
While you're saying the part you've just understood, you are, of course, reading the next bit...
Speed is key; when you can read at conversational speed using only part of your attention, you have capacity left to speak as well.
Familiarity is also very useful. Stories for toddlers can often be learned by rote, with only an occasional glance at the text to ensure you stay on course.
With older children and more complicated works, having read the material beforehand is still very useful. If it's something you read often as a child, you'll probably still have a good idea where it's going. If its a new book, enjoy it yourself a few times before 'performing' with it.
It's a few years since I read to my boys, but they and I remember those times fondly. It's certainly worth the effort!
As with all skills, practice, practice, practice!
I started early, reading aloud to my sisters and brother from about 35 years ago!
I can read aloud about half a paragraph ahead if a book is taken from me. I got fairly good at different 'character voices' too. 
One thing to try is to record yourself doing it and play back to see what you sound like and what you want to change. Though if you haven't heard your voice played back to you before it is quite weird!
You may want to try reading deliberately slower, faster, in a ridiculous accent, higher/lower tone etc. Perhaps search online for folks who do professional voice overs and get some tips from them.
Whatever you do, reading to your young'un will enrich their life enormously so don't give up!
I started early, reading aloud to my sisters and brother from about 35 years ago!
I can read aloud about half a paragraph ahead if a book is taken from me. I got fairly good at different 'character voices' too. One thing to try is to record yourself doing it and play back to see what you sound like and what you want to change. Though if you haven't heard your voice played back to you before it is quite weird!
You may want to try reading deliberately slower, faster, in a ridiculous accent, higher/lower tone etc. Perhaps search online for folks who do professional voice overs and get some tips from them.
Whatever you do, reading to your young'un will enrich their life enormously so don't give up!
Much less detailed / helpful than other responses so far, but what kind of thing are you reading?
My favourites for my 10 month old are:
The Gruffalo - simple story, with animals that it's easy to voice - high pitched for mouse, elongated 'oo' and 's' for the peek and snake respectively. And the Gruffalo can sound like anything!
Also any Dr Seuss, although my favourites are Fox in Socks and The Cat In The Hat - with those it's more about the rhythm than the sounds. Accompanied by bouncing her on my knee as I speed up.
My favourites for my 10 month old are:
The Gruffalo - simple story, with animals that it's easy to voice - high pitched for mouse, elongated 'oo' and 's' for the peek and snake respectively. And the Gruffalo can sound like anything!
Also any Dr Seuss, although my favourites are Fox in Socks and The Cat In The Hat - with those it's more about the rhythm than the sounds. Accompanied by bouncing her on my knee as I speed up.
Practice! Get used to the sound of your own voice and try different pitches and so on. Don't feel silly about practising in private either.
Reading was a major part of my job as a teacher, and I reckon I was pretty good at it, though it was a bit of a shock to realise that many colleagues were not. Try to skip ahead a bit and work out what's happening too, so that your voice is pre engaged as it were.
The daughters of friends of ours stayed over with our kids and a highlight was me reading "William" stories. Our friends overheard a delightful discussion about whether Uncle Chris was as good as or better than Martin Jarvis - praise indeed. Keep going - language and literacy are so fundamental to developing thought.
Reading was a major part of my job as a teacher, and I reckon I was pretty good at it, though it was a bit of a shock to realise that many colleagues were not. Try to skip ahead a bit and work out what's happening too, so that your voice is pre engaged as it were.
The daughters of friends of ours stayed over with our kids and a highlight was me reading "William" stories. Our friends overheard a delightful discussion about whether Uncle Chris was as good as or better than Martin Jarvis - praise indeed. Keep going - language and literacy are so fundamental to developing thought.
First thing to do is to find books that you don't mind reading as if your like little BS2 your going to be reading them to him at least twice a night for the rest of your life! Current favourite is Room on a broom with the cat and the dog and the frog... down they came crashing into a bog... I could go on. The thing is with these books after the first couple of weeks and 20 or 30 reads your hardly looking at the words as they are so easy to memorise, Room on a broom like The Gruffalo and many other rhyme so they are easy to read aloud.
Also find books that are age appropraite 14 months Room on a Broom or Good Night Tractor are spot on, Good Night Tractor is a good one for boys it only has about 50 words in the whole book but which boy doesn't like tractors on every page.
Don't worry if your good or not just stick at it as it's very important at that age and by the time they are 3 and your reading the damn Gruffalo every night for a year you will be so much better.
Maybe we should post some good books for you to try?
Also find books that are age appropraite 14 months Room on a Broom or Good Night Tractor are spot on, Good Night Tractor is a good one for boys it only has about 50 words in the whole book but which boy doesn't like tractors on every page.
Don't worry if your good or not just stick at it as it's very important at that age and by the time they are 3 and your reading the damn Gruffalo every night for a year you will be so much better.
Maybe we should post some good books for you to try?
I read to my 4 year old every night, one thing I learned early on is to read ahead, especially when there are several characters taking turns to speak (otherwise you read a dialogue in a high squeaky voice only to discover it's actually the elephant speaking, not the mouse).
In the early years kids like books read over and over (Room on the Broom and Gruffalo/Gruffalo's Child were form favourites) but as they get older they want more vaiety so you can't rely on learning the order of things beforehand.
We go to the library every couple of weeks and she gets 10 books out a time, reading ahead while speaking in several different voices/accents is a great skill to learn for this stage, 4 year olds find funny voices hilarious (so do the in-laws I've found).
We also found that getting books for slightly older children mean that the ones I read to her can be a bit longer than the ones targetted at her age group - perfect for bedtime reading or doing in a couple of chunks.
In the early years kids like books read over and over (Room on the Broom and Gruffalo/Gruffalo's Child were form favourites) but as they get older they want more vaiety so you can't rely on learning the order of things beforehand.
We go to the library every couple of weeks and she gets 10 books out a time, reading ahead while speaking in several different voices/accents is a great skill to learn for this stage, 4 year olds find funny voices hilarious (so do the in-laws I've found).
We also found that getting books for slightly older children mean that the ones I read to her can be a bit longer than the ones targetted at her age group - perfect for bedtime reading or doing in a couple of chunks.
Reading ahead is a must - as is, when they get a bit older and the books become more complex, not worrying about being absolutely exact in the words. Being unfussed about a little ad libbing will make it sound a lot more natural and fluid.
Doing different voices can be bloody hard, I've tied myself in knots a few times!
The Book With No Pictures is very, very cool...
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cREyQJO9EPs
Doing different voices can be bloody hard, I've tied myself in knots a few times!
The Book With No Pictures is very, very cool...
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cREyQJO9EPs
When I was much younger I used to love the Jackanory stories and particularly loved Rik Mayall reading Georges Marvellous Medicine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMFY8g56ZCg
With children of my own I liked to try emulating his style, emphasis, inflection and voices. It lends itself well to the Julia Donaldson stories, which my kids loved.
It doesn't really matter how bad you think you are, its the fact that you read to them on a very regular basis that is having the benefits. My kids now read themselves, without being told, on a daily basis.
With children of my own I liked to try emulating his style, emphasis, inflection and voices. It lends itself well to the Julia Donaldson stories, which my kids loved.
It doesn't really matter how bad you think you are, its the fact that you read to them on a very regular basis that is having the benefits. My kids now read themselves, without being told, on a daily basis.
Thank you for all of the advice and recommendations.
Re the character voices, my current favourite is 'A Bit Lost' which I can recite by memory now. There is a baby owl, a squirrel, frog and mummy owl which naturally lend themselves to 4 very distinct voices. I find (and this is where reading ahead is starting to help in other books) that I sometimes say: "said squirrel" in squirrel's voice rather than my narration voice though.
Practice it is.
Re the character voices, my current favourite is 'A Bit Lost' which I can recite by memory now. There is a baby owl, a squirrel, frog and mummy owl which naturally lend themselves to 4 very distinct voices. I find (and this is where reading ahead is starting to help in other books) that I sometimes say: "said squirrel" in squirrel's voice rather than my narration voice though.
Practice it is.
Zog is another good one - about a trainee dragon, he was the keenest one by far - Julia Donaldson (again).
It's really just practice and remembering which character had which voice and don't ever be tempted to substitute the lead character which your childs name. Any mistakes will be jumped on without mercy.
It's really just practice and remembering which character had which voice and don't ever be tempted to substitute the lead character which your childs name. Any mistakes will be jumped on without mercy.
Familarity with eth book helps as you know when to built suspense or volume.
By far the best thing for me though was to have a mental buffer - so you are reading the words a sentence ahead of the bit you are speaking. It means you are much less likely to trip up or say things with the wrong emphasis.
Silly accents help too. It doesn't matter that your Welshman sounds like he's from Hyderabad when the audience is only 2.
By far the best thing for me though was to have a mental buffer - so you are reading the words a sentence ahead of the bit you are speaking. It means you are much less likely to trip up or say things with the wrong emphasis.
Silly accents help too. It doesn't matter that your Welshman sounds like he's from Hyderabad when the audience is only 2.
Practice does indeed help. My children are 5 and 8 and I read to them most night. I have found that Roahl Dahl and Enid Blyton books suit being read out load and
when they were younger I enjoyed reading them the Julia Donaldson books and they enjoyed listening.
They are on an Enid Blyton phase at the moment, I have managed to get nearly all of the Famous Five books (managed 18 out of 21 so far) along with some Secret Seven and Five find outers books. They are almost comical in their 1930's upper class setting, with servents, boarding school and oiks. There is a character in one at the minute called Fatty, he is one of the 'heroes' of the story.
The kids love the stories because the children in them are always triumphant, out smarting villainous adults, and still have time for ginger beer and cake.
when they were younger I enjoyed reading them the Julia Donaldson books and they enjoyed listening.
They are on an Enid Blyton phase at the moment, I have managed to get nearly all of the Famous Five books (managed 18 out of 21 so far) along with some Secret Seven and Five find outers books. They are almost comical in their 1930's upper class setting, with servents, boarding school and oiks. There is a character in one at the minute called Fatty, he is one of the 'heroes' of the story.
The kids love the stories because the children in them are always triumphant, out smarting villainous adults, and still have time for ginger beer and cake.
Perseverant said:
Practice! Get used to the sound of your own voice and try different pitches and so on. Don't feel silly about practising in private either.
Reading was a major part of my job as a teacher, and I reckon I was pretty good at it, though it was a bit of a shock to realise that many colleagues were not. Try to skip ahead a bit and work out what's happening too, so that your voice is pre engaged as it were.
The daughters of friends of ours stayed over with our kids and a highlight was me reading "William" stories. Our friends overheard a delightful discussion about whether Uncle Chris was as good as or better than Martin Jarvis - praise indeed. Keep going - language and literacy are so fundamental to developing thought.
My mother and grandmother were fantastic story tellers and would do different voices, etc whilst still making the book flow naturally, something I picked up on at an early age.Reading was a major part of my job as a teacher, and I reckon I was pretty good at it, though it was a bit of a shock to realise that many colleagues were not. Try to skip ahead a bit and work out what's happening too, so that your voice is pre engaged as it were.
The daughters of friends of ours stayed over with our kids and a highlight was me reading "William" stories. Our friends overheard a delightful discussion about whether Uncle Chris was as good as or better than Martin Jarvis - praise indeed. Keep going - language and literacy are so fundamental to developing thought.
When I was in Year 8 at High School we were reading The Hobbit in English and going round the room taking turns to read, so when it got to me I just did what felt natural and added different voices, etc. My English teacher went nuts. "What's wrong with your voice?" he asked. "erm?". "why does it keep changing?". After being duly humiliated I proceeded to read it how he wanted me to; dull and monotonous.
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