image credit: Put the camera down, Daddy (via Flickr)

A recent post on TinyEye.com, an interesting blog by Speech-Language Pathologist Marnee Brick, caught my attention. The article was originally written to help parents make the most of on-line websites for kids, but the language stimulation techniques she includes can be applied to any sort of interactive parent-child activities. Of course it’s also great advice for getting the most out story time with your favorite bilingual readers. Here are a few of our favorite tips:

• Wait and watch: Look at your child to see what he is looking at – then give it a name. i.e.) Rocket! You see a red rocket!
• Describe: Be the commentator who occasionally says, WHOOSH! … Ohhh bumpy ride!…That’s a big dog!….You picked blue! If you are consistent with what you comment on, your child may start to automatically comment on the same types of pictures or actions. For example, if you say 1 2 3 BLAST OFF or GO every time the rockets flies, your child may start to do that on his own. (Note from Bilingual Readers: Bilingual books are a great tool for being consistent with what you comment on in both languages. One of the many reasons to read your child the same story over and over again.)
• Silence: No need to talk all the time – leave space for the child to make comments, to process information, or to just enjoy. He is learning by doing. (Note from Bilingual Readers: This is a great tip books with flaps or other interactive gadgets, but it also applies to simple story books. Give your child a few moments of silence to take in all of the information on each page before moving on to the next one, and let him practice turning the page himself when he’s ready.)
• Copy Cat and Expand: To grow language, imitate what your child says. (He says, doddie – you day DOGGIE!). Then take one more step by adding one more word, as in BIG DOGGIE!
• Repeat x 3: If you were learning a new language, you would need to hear a word over and over again to really understand how to say it and what it represented. Keep this in mind when you are naming objects and pictures. For example, if the picture or object is a bus, you might casually say bus…bus… bus!… hi bus!!! (Note from Bilingual Readers: This is even more important when a child is learning two languages. Repeat, repeat, repeat!)
• Helpful Word: Use the activities as an opportunity to learn useful self advocacy and social words such as: hi, bye, help, again, more, done, yes, no, my turn, your turn, please, thank you…

Please let us know which techniques you find most useful, and feel free to send us useful tips of your own!