Welcome to Book Smart
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Dr. Anne Cunningham
    • Dr. Jamie Zibulsky
  • Acquired Skills
  • How Is This Book Unique?
  • Book Smart Reviews
  • Press
    • Blog Posts
    • Videos
    • Newspaper Articles
    • Radio
  • How Will Book Smart Help?
  • Tips for Parents-Shared Reading
    • Parent-Directed Shared Reading
    • Child-Directed Shared Reading
    • Joint Reading
    • P.E.E.R Strategy
    • C.R.O.W.D Strategy
  • Chapter Summaries
    • Chapter 1: Oral Language
    • Chapter 2: Emergent Literacy
    • Chapter 3: Learning to Write
    • Chapter 4: Reading Comprehension
    • Chapter 5: Reading Volume
    • Chapter 6: The Social and Emotional Benefits of Reading Together
  • Run a Reading Workshop
    • How to Get Started >
      • Logistics
      • FAQs
      • References
      • Session 1 >
        • Session Summary
        • Powerpoint
        • Session Script
        • Group Activity Script
        • Group Activity Handout
        • Fidelity Checklist
        • P.E.E.R. and C.R.O.W.D. Bookmarks
        • C.R.O.W.D. Examples
      • Session 2 >
        • Session Summary
        • Powerpoint
        • Session Script
        • Group Activity Script
        • Group Activity Handout
        • Fidelity Checklist
      • Session 3 >
        • Session Summary
        • PowerPoint
        • Session Script
        • Group Activity Script
        • Group Activity Handouts
        • Fidelity Checklist
      • Session 4 >
        • Session Summary
        • PowerPoint
        • Session Script
        • Group Activity Script
        • Group Activity Handouts
        • Fidelity Checklist
      • Session 5 >
        • Session Summary
        • PowerPoint
        • Session Script
        • Group Activity Script
        • Group Activity Handout
        • Fidelity Checklist
      • Session 6 >
        • Session Summary
        • PowerPoint
        • Session Script
        • Group Activity Handout
        • Group Activity Handouts
        • Fidelity Checklist
  • Activities
    • Semantic Development: Strategies for Parents
    • Syntactic Development: Strategies For Parents
  • Recommended Children's Books
    • Wordless Picture Books
    • Songs, Poems, & Rhyming Books
    • Idioms
    • Books To Support Phonological Awareness
    • Abc Books
    • Decodable Books
    • Print Salient Books
    • Books for Writing
    • Books To Teach Writing
    • Books That Utilize Background Knowledge
    • Inferential Thinking
    • Causal Reasoning
    • Visualizing
    • Predicting
    • Questioning
    • Books that Facilitate Narrative Retelling and Summarizing
  • Events Calendar
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Contact
Book SMART on Social Media

"I  always  thought  that  I  should  focus  on  Play  with  my preschooler,  and  spend  time  on  READING  when  my  child  gets  older. 


WHy  should  I  start  reading  with  my  child  now?"


Picture
    When children are little, each of the early reading skills they develop – like being able to hear and play with the sounds in words, being able to recognize letters, and developing a large vocabulary – independently play a role in their ability to sound out and understand stories.  These skills are developing when your child is two, three, and four years old.  But they become interconnected by the time your child gets to second or third grade.  For that reason, early shared reading helps your child acquire these building blocks of reading before it’s too late.  There is a lot of evidence that shows that we can predict how a child will perform in reading tasks throughout their whole school career based on how well they acquire these early skills in preschool and kindergarten.  That’s why it is critical for parents to provide these experiences to their toddlers and preschoolers before they enter kindergarten, and this is exactly what the parents of academically successful children do.


"Are  there  other  skills  CHILDREN  can  learn  during  shared  reading  time?"


Picture
Reading together provides you with the opportunity to model and develop your child’s persistence, curiosity, perspective-taking, and empathy – all components of your child’s character that affect academic and occupational success.  These are important traits that support learning, and reading is a valued and universal activity that allows you to develop them.  Although sports and games are other ways to develop these character traits, it may be more difficult for children to apply what they learn from extracurricular activities to academic activities.  And although these traits can be developed through work in other academic areas, the fact that reading is accessible to all students – through books and magazines that they find interesting – makes it more appealing for many parents and children to work on together in comparison to, for example, practicing math flashcards.  Parents need to help children stay focused, be persistent, and take turns with others before they enter kindergarten so they can get the most of out their school day.


"What  is  most  IMPORTANT  for  me  to  know  about  this  book?"


Picture
The most important message we want to share is that it is not complicated to build language and literacy skills – the activities you need to engage your child in can be simple and fun.  Many of the activities don’t require you to even have a book in your hands, and focus instead on games you can play in the car or on the go.  Language and written words surround us all the time, and the strategies we share will allow you to capitalize on the great learning opportunities that arise each day.  Our book is filled with ideas for helping your child build many skills across his first decade of life.