Sound Effects
Here’s a technique that will keep restless children more involved during read-aloud time. Ask your children to help you provide sound effects in the appropriate places.
Use your voices and hands to make the bed creak, the floor squeak, the leaves swish and the kettle hiss. Children who actively participate in a reading listen with rapt attention and rarely miss a cue.
A great book to introduce sound effects is The Pig in the Pond by Martin Waddell and Jill Barton (Walker Books). You and your children can explore a whole encyclopaedia of onomatopoeic sounds, or words that imitate natural sounds, like quack and splash.
Hold the attention of babies and toddlers by making animal sounds to accompany their storybooks. Don’t just say ‘moo’; drop the register of your voice and low like a cow! When your ten- month-old points to a picture of a dog, do the whole routine: drop own on all fours, sniff your squealing baby’s fingers, and playfully crowl and bark — then resume reading. How can your child help ‘but be amazed at the effects books have on you?