Poet and lecturer Colette Hiller shares how adults can benefit from shared reading – and the impact this has on children.
Image: Corrie Gorman
Colette Hiller is a writer and lecturer
Reading a book with a child has huge value to the adult as well as to the child.
When you read to them, you enter the same world together, like going on a holiday. You’re living in the moment together, and imagining something together.
If you read something that has facts in it, you can also learn simultaneously. Or re-learn. Books can prompt a critical discussion, as well as a cosy moment. It’s a shared experience.
Humans are built to enjoy stories.
You don’t need to tell a child to enjoy food – they will enjoy it. Similarly, a child wants to hear stories, as do adults.
In reading aloud, the adult reader becomes a magician. They present suspense. Humans love suspense – just think of wrapped presents. What will happen next?
Children are naturally curious. There is plenty to talk about in any story. The best stories create tension where everyone wants to know more, to read on.
The most rewarding experience is when the adult is fully involved.
While BookTrust’s evidence shows that allowing the child to choose the book benefits the child, because it motivates them, it helps if the adult genuinely likes the book they’re reading.
This doesn’t mean that they have to perform when reading aloud, but a well-written book will transform anyone into a performer. You are given the script and empowered to make the experience incredibly enjoyable for both of you. You’re emboldened to be the reader – and possibly an honorary child too, depending on the text.
This needn’t be daunting, though, because there are instructions built into the text.
For instance, in rhyming text, there are pauses in the rhythm – and the turn of the page in a picture book. There can be surprises in the metre. There could be something unpredictable that makes you both laugh.
Of course, when reading picture books, you can simply talk about the pictures. Either way, the experience of sharing this with a child or children can be great fun.
But when the text is technically good, the children absorb it. Think of how pleasurable Dr Seuss books are to read aloud. And We’re Going on a Bear Hunt by Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury.
The children get to know the words – there are always repeat readings! – and so it leads to collective reading.
Finally, a child will want to share an adult’s joy. If the adult is having fun, so will the child, and then they’re living in the moment.
Things to Teach Your Grown-Up by Colette Hiller and Corrie Gorman is out now.