Make time every single day to read to your child

Apart from feeding and keeping your child healthy and safe, reading is one of the most important activities–regardless of the language! Reading to your child in the minority language for only 15 minutes per day can already have a long and lasting impact. 

Here is why reading to and with your child helps her language development:

• 1. Reading exposes children to a wide variety of new topics, content, and words. Although you may speak with your child every day, the vocabulary you use is usually limited and repetitive. Books provide exposure to a wide variety of words. These words are most likely different from the words you use in your everyday communication. For example, the book The Gruffalo will feature content and words that are very different from Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site and The Little Mermaid. So through stories your child will be exposed to a range of topics, contents, and words.
  2. If you read to children, they hear the sounds of the language. Children learn how words are pronounced and may pick up different speech varieties. Also, if kids are a little older, reading with them may help them acquire the sound–letter (phoneme–grapheme) relationships. In other words, they may connect what they hear with what they read. That helps them develop their reading skills.
  3. You can use books to have a real conversation with your child. You can talk about the stories, the pictures, or characters in the book. In other words, you can use books to create a genuine interaction in the target language–a key aspect in learning a language.
  4. Reading regularly may motivate your child to eventually read on her own. If children read independently, they may become more fluent readers—a value that translates into academic success down the line. 
  5. Reading encourages creativity and imagination. While the stories, plots, and characters inspire the kids’ imagination, so does the language. Oftentimes, language in children’s books is used in a much more creative way than in everyday conversation.
  6. Reading regularly can strengthen the bond between you and your child because you dedicate quality time and engage with each other.

Give it a try: Bedtime story in the minority language!

For those parents who struggle with raising their children bilingually because it’s quite a time commitment, you could start by reading the bedtime story in the minority/additional language.