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Can you think of one of your children’s books you’d like to toss across the room from reading it so much?
Yeah, me too. (Though it will not be named!)
Though reading the same books may drive you up a wall, repeated readings of your children’s favorite stories are beneficial for their reading and language development.
The repetition of hearing the same sounds, words, and sentences in their favorite books encourages awareness of the language and exposes the child to foundational reading skills.
I know I can think of an annoying book or two that sometimes I don’t want to read for the thousandth time…anyone with me here?!
So before you decide to tuck away that book and claim it went “missing” (even if just for a bit), read this post to learn about the benefits of repeatedly reading your children’s favorite books.
Here are five ways your child benefits from hearing the same stories read on repeat:
1. Increased vocabulary
Reading to a child is more effective at building vocabulary than talking, according to research by Dominic Massaro, a professor in psychology.
Massaro found that picture books are two to three times more likely than parent-child conversations to include a word that is not among the 5,000 most common English words.
Children’s books, especially picture books, are usually ripe with rich language, whereas adult conversations are pretty bland.
(Hey, how was your day? It was good. How was yours? Can we say boring!)
We typically repeat back what is said to us, which decreases the variety of language we use and which our kids hear.
No kids’ book talks about paying bills, ordering groceries on the Walmart Grocery Pickup app, or getting cat throw-up out of the carpet.
Instead, the books that grace your tiny one’s fingertips hold wild, silly adventures, descriptive language of talking animals and new lands to explore, and just so many words we do not use every day.
Furthermore, a child’s vocabulary is an indicator of academic success, so it’s good to get your kiddo exposed to as much language as possible.
The TV is alright, but hearing a human voice does so much more to boost vocabulary.
2. Deepen comprehension
As you reread stories with your children, your conversations about them get deeper.
You may notice details in illustrations you didn’t see before. Your focus shifts from understanding what is happening in the story to understanding big ideas, like symbolism, themes, and character development.
Reading the same stories allows children to make deeper connections to the books they are reading – to themselves, other texts, and the world around them.
Reading also builds on a child’s schema.
3. Increased phonemic awareness
The more you read, the more your child hears how sounds are blended to make words and how words string together to make a sentence.
(Hippopotamus! That’s a fun word we don’t often say — I read a story to my toddler the other night with a hippo in it).
Before children learn how to read or spell, they must be able to think about and manipulate the individual sounds in words.
Like ‘cat’ has three individual sounds, /c/, /a/, /t/.
That’s phonemic awareness.
When your child listens to you read, they listen to the sounds you make as you read.
They’ll learn to recognize that the letter s makes the /s/ sound and so on.
4. Improved fluency
The more your child hears you read a book, the more they have a chance to hear what fluent reading sounds like.
Fluency is the ability to read text accurately, quickly, and with expression.
Don’t be surprised if your child memorizes a book by listening to you read, either!
Read with gusto and enthusiasm. Pull out those silly voices – even if it’s embarrassing to you. Your kid will crack up!
P.S. Try an audiobook for your kid to listen to during some downtime or on a car ride.
5. Increased confidence
When children can participate in the story, such as asking questions, answering your questions, and making connections, it builds their reading confidence. With enough fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension comes confidence.
If your child is an infant or baby, you could invite them to participate by saying, “I see a tree. What’s that? It’s a tree,” or “Can you point to the tree?”
Point to objects in the book and say out loud what they are. If you have that item in the home, say so! “Oh, we have a toy boat! We played with that at bathtime, didn’t we?”
If your child is of preschool age, your questioning could become a little more complex: “What do you think is going to happen?” is a good one – especially if they’ve read the story before because they know what will happen!
“Oh, you were right! How did you know that was going to happen?”
When your child can connect with a story, their reading confidence naturally blossoms.
And with that, they will likely become lifelong readers.
Your takeaway
While rereading the same ole’ books can be a real pain in the tooshie, knowing how much good stuff our kids get from repeated readings makes all the Wockets in your pockets more tolerable.
Between more in-depth comprehension, deeper vocabulary, and an awareness of the sounds of our language and how they string together, rereading your child’s favorite books is one of the best ways you can help build their lifelong reading skills.
So annoying book be damned, read the hell out of it anyway!
How do you feel about reading the same books on repeat? Which books are your kid’s current faves?
Share below!
