Reading aloud: eight tips
Eight small pieces of advice for anyone reading with a child.
Reading aloud is less about technique than about presence. What matters is not how many pages you get through, but that the child experiences books as part of good moments. That is how the love of reading grows.
These tips come from many years of working with children, language and stories. Take what you can use and leave the rest.
- 01
Read the same book again and again
Repetition is not boring for a child — it is safe. When the story is familiar, the child has room to notice the words, the pictures and the feelings in it.
- 02
Stop along the way and wonder together
Ask “what do you think he is feeling now?” rather than “what is his name?”. Open questions turn reading into a conversation instead of a test.
- 03
Let the child choose the book
Even when the choice is the same book for the tenth time, or a book that seems too easy. Desire is the most important reading muscle.
- 04
Read about difficult things while things are easy
Books about anger, jealousy, longing or fear give words to feelings before the child is in the middle of them. The story keeps a little distance — and makes it easier to talk.
- 05
Ten seconds of silence after the last page
Close the book and say nothing. Many children bring up what they were thinking about if there is room for it.
- 06
Short moments count
Ten minutes a day means more than an hour on Sunday. Reading is allowed on the floor, in the car or in the middle of building a tower.
- 07
Let the child “read” before they can read
Telling the story from the pictures is real reading in the child's eyes. Do not correct — listen.
- 08
Read yourself where the child can see it
Children do what they see adults do. An adult with a book in hand is one of the strongest reading tips there is.
Looking for a book to read together?
My own children's books are about feelings, friendship and being new somewhere. Most of them are in Danish.
