As we ease into autumn, cooler weather and vibrant leaves offer the perfect excuse to create cozy new reading routines at home! Encouraging your child to interact with books, read together often and build a book collection can help foster a love of reading at an early age.

Early exposure to literacy is key to developing a rich vocabulary, understanding and expressing various emotions and preparing children for success in school. By making storytime an enjoyable and meaningful part of your family’s daily routine, you build a strong foundation for your child’s future language and reading skills.

Let’s explore three simple strategies you can use at home to make reading a positive experience for your child:

Listen to Your Child’s Interests

Children are more likely to pay attention to things that already fascinate them. If your child has a favorite topic, superheroes, gardening, space, fairytales, for example, lean into those interests and use them as your starting point.

Let your child choose what they want to read. Books featuring their favorite characters, animals or hobbies can make reading more exciting while introducing new vocabulary, phrases and ways of telling stories.

Don’t worry if your child reaches for the same book over and over again! Rereading the same book is very beneficial for memory, sequencing, and communication.

Choose Books That Feel Familiar

Stories may be more engaging when children can relate to the topics they read about. Adults help children make connections when they ask children to share their ideas or to remember a time they saw or experienced something similar to the book. For example, you can read a book about the fall season with your child, take a walk outside together and look for things you noticed in the story.

Discuss similarities and differences between the story and what you observe together. These conversations invite your child to share what they noticed, learn new words to describe their own experiences and build on what they already know.

Make Reading Fun

Allow your child to become an active part of storytime by using silly voices, facial expressions or body movements to bring the characters to life. Encourage them to use their imagination and creativity, whether they act out a scene or add their own unique twist to the story plot or ending.

Using toys and drawings to retell stories is another playful way to interact with books as well as expand language and imagination.