Why You Should Read Wordless Books to Your Child

This week we are exploring wordless books.  Have you heard of them?  Do you have them on your bookshelf already?  Here are 7 reasons why you should! (Trust me – your child will thank you!)

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This weeks’ topic was inspired by a post called Wonderful Wordless Picture Books at You Clever Monkey. 

This post lists some fantastic wordless picture books for kids with descriptions of each.  I always love reading people’s recommendations for books because there are so many good ones out there and sometimes they are hard to find.  Especially – when they are in a specific genre – like wordless books.  Please check out their post!

Discovering Wordless Magic

I came across my first wordless book when I was given a copy of Good Night, Gorilla for my son, Onetime, when he was a baby.  When I first opened the pages, I was confused!  Where were the words?  How was this supposed to help build my son’s language and love of reading?

Then I realized – what GENIUS these books are!

Because there were no words, I had to tell the story to my son.  I quickly figured out that I was using rich vocabulary and much longer sentences with more detail than what I’d usually find in a book for babies or toddlers.

And this brings us to our first reason why you should “read” wordless books to your babies/toddlers/preschoolers/kindergarteners.

Reason #1: Wordless Books Help Develop Your Child’s Vocabulary

Research shows that parents’ language is indeed more rich when reading a wordless book.  The more words that young children hear from parents, the more their understanding of language is boosted!  And the more words kids know by the time they go to school, the more likely they are to do well with reading and writing.

Reason #2: Wordless Books Improve Your Child’s Ability to Infer

This is why I often use comics and picture books to teach my students in grades 4, 5 and 6 how to infer. The ability to draw conclusions based on evidence, is a thinking skill that is consistently found in good readers.

When a young child is looking closely at the pictures of a wordless book, and trying to figure out what’s happening, and what’s going to happen next, they are flexing their inferring muscles!

Reason #3:  Wordless Books Help Kids Focus on Plot and Event Sequencing 

Because these books don’t rely on text to convey their message, children pay greater attention to the plot and ordering of events when reading them.

They gain an understanding of events that happen at the beginning, middle, and end – an important precursor of learning to effectively summarize – another skill that is found in good readers.

Reason #4:  Your Child Can “Read” Wordless Books Independently

Long before they can read words, children learn to read pictures.  After “reading” my son Good Night, Gorilla a number of times, I caught him reading the book to himself.

He was 1 1/2 and I could see he was actively engaged in telling himself the story as he flipped through the pages.  I even witnessed him giggling at the funny part!

Older kids can tell you their version of the story out loud.  You can even record their interpretation by hand or with a tape recorder and read it back to them! What fun!

Reason #5: Wordless Books Create an Interactive Reading Experience

When we are enjoying a wordless book with our child, the experience tends to be more flexible and interactive than when we are reading a book with text.

Have you ever caught yourself reading your child a story and then realize your thoughts are somewhere else?  (This tends to happen when I’m really tired and I’ve read the book to my son many times!)

Well, this never happens when you’re reading wordless books. They just make you think more – and that’s a good thing for your child.  As I often tell my students at school, “Reading IS thinking!”

While reading a wordless book, you are more likely to pause and talk about the pictures, look at the pictures longer, label the pictures, ask your child questions, etc.

Reason #6: Children Decide What Point of View to Use

This is a really neat reason!  When you are reading a wordless book to your child, YOU decide who is the main character, and whose point of view it is being told from.

When your child reads the book, they can choose too and it might be from a different perspective.

In Good Night, Gorilla you can tell the story from the point of view of the animals at the zoo, or from the Zookeeper. It’s up to you to decide.  What a great way to develop thinking skills!

Reason #7: The Pictures are Fabulous and the Books are FUN to Read!

Wordless picture books are almost like little visual mysteries that you have to solve. They are fun to read as an adult and kids inevitably LOVE them too!  Oh, and the pictures and artwork are usually exceptional as well – bonus!

I hope I have convinced you of the benefits of “reading” wordless books to your child.  Do you have any favourites? Or if is this a new thing – will you give them a try?

Our Favourite Wordless Books

Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann
Can’t say enough about how fun this story is!  Lots of inferring, lots of humour, and love the colourful artwork!

Cheep! Cheep! by Julie Stiegmeyer
Fell in love with this book after picking it up at a second hand store.  Although there are a few words on each page, they are just sound-effects and the entire story has to be interpreted visually.  It’s got terrific humour in it and always makes my son laugh!

The Red Book by Barbara Lehman
Just got this book recently and love it!  Such a neat concept – basically it’s the story of how two kids who live in very different places, one a grey metropolis and the other a sunny, colourful tropical island, find each other through a little red book.  It’s a magical, make-believe story with Caldecott award winning artwork!

Changes, Changes by Pat Hutchins
We have this book in our special education department at my school and I’ve “read” it a number of times with kids of all ages.  It’s a fun story that follows 2 characters made out of blocks on their adventures and obstacles in a block world that constantly changes.

Time Flies by Eric Rohmann
A popular book with the Kindergarten crowd.  This one is perfect for dinosaur lovers.  It follows the adventures of a bird who flies into a dinosaur bone exhibit and finds itself going back in time. The beautiful pictures won it a Caldecott Honor!

Want More Ideas for Reading with Your Kids?

You might like my post on 10 Tips for Choosing Great Kids’ Books.

That’s it for this week.  Hope you found some inspiring ideas to get you “reading” more with your child!

If you’re looking for even more early reading ideas for preschoolers – be sure to check out our Early Reading Pinterest board at: Follow One Time Through’s board Early Reading Activities on Pinterest.

Please check out more posts from my fabulous blogging friends:

Left Brain Craft Brain – D-Eye-Y Games for Kids: Visual Skills at Play

A Little Pinch of Perfect – Fall Art Activities for Tots

Totschooling –Halloween Lacing Cards