Illustrations are a great way to introduce more working vocabulary words. It can be as simple as pointing to at an object and asking what it is. Once your child answers, affirm your child’s great answer and add a describing word. You can then even add more describing words or ask about what the illustrations infer building social-emotional skills in your discussions.

For example:
Adult: What is this? [point to illustration of a fish]
Child: A fish.
Adult: Yes, it is a fish- a red fish. Does it look big or little?
Child: Little
Adult: Yes. I think so, too! It is a little red fish. How do you think the fish feels?
Child: Happy.
Adult: A happy little red fish. What do you see that makes you think the fish is happy?
Child. It’s smiling.
Adult: What a great thing to notice! I know I smile a lot when I am happy. Let’s read this page and see if we can figure out more about this little red fish.

Reading is one of the 5 early literacy practices supported by Every Child Ready to Read®. Just by reading out loud to your child, you are helping build the six skills: print awareness, letter knowledge, phonological awareness, vocabulary, narrative skills, and print motivation. By talking about the illustrations increases the words you say during your shared reading and them will assist children with making print/story/illustration connections. There is power in the pictures!

Every Child Ready to Read® is a project of the Association for Library Service to Children and the Public Library Association, divisions of the American Library Association.