Introducing… STEMIE’s Storybook Conversations Series

Are you spending more time at home reading with your young children?

Are you interested in helping them gain language skills and learn about STEM?

Do you need some ideas for adapting the reading process for your child with disabilities?

We will like to introduce you to something called dialogic reading 1, a systematic approach to storybook reading, which has been shown to help children with and without disabilities develop comprehension and language skills.

With some careful planning of what questions to ask children throughout the book, reading time can becomes a rich opportunity for building concepts through conversation! Plus your child can become a full participant and help you tell part of the story instead of passively listening to the story! You can use digital books on a screen or regular paper or board books. It’s easy and we will show you how! With this blog, we have provided:

• a general overview tipsheet and an example of prompts you can use for Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar
• examples of adaptation and modification families can make to support children with disabilities participate in dialogic reading

For example, here’s a video of a mom using dialogic reading with her preschooler who uses an augmentative communication device:

1 What Works Clearinghouse Intervention: DialogicReading  https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/InterventionReports/WWC_Dialogic_Reading_020807.pdf