Jennifer Dobbs, an assistant professor of developmental studies in Purdue’s Department of Child Development and Family Studies, has an interesting perspective on bedtime reading:
“There’s nothing wrong
with a bedtime story,” Dobbs said. “Kids thrive on routines and
rituals, but it would be too bad if the only experience a child had of
being read to was when they’re expected to drift off to sleep.”
Instead, she advocates using dialogic reading techniques with children, interjecting questions and pointing out details in the pictures to start a conversation. Well, perhaps I’m just strange but that is the way I always read aloud, even at bedtime. 🙂 I’ve always felt that reading aloud is a place where we can talk and interact, sometimes to the point that as the minutes tick by I have to stop the conversation and get back to the story! But then I do the full set of funny voices with stories as well…
Anyone else here read using dialogic techniques without even knowing it?
Waking Brain Cells 
Pick me for “dialogic techniques”, even though I didn’t know that’s what they’re called. When they were bitty, we’d do “where’s the X” questions, so the kids could point. And I’ve always used voices and accents where appropriate, and if I hit a word I thought they didn’t know, I’d ask if they knew what it meant, etc. Do you mean some people don’t do that?
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Actually, I don’t do dialogic reading at bedtime.
When I read to my kids during the day, it’s a very active enterprise, with counting and finding and “how do you think he feels? can you tell by his face?” and so at bedtime we take it easy, with quieter, rhymier books, letting everyone just lay back and listen to my voice.
Oh, and totally – when I first heard about dialogic reading I was all concerned – til I found out I had been doing it all along.
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When I read to my daughter at bedtime, she’s always the one asking me the questions. I’ts a bit of reversal I never really thought about before.
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You mean there’s a word for it? Cool! I’ve always done this; I just didn’t know what it was called!
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Yes, I have used dialogic reading without knowing that’s what I was doing. And now that I have learned more info about dialogic reading, it has made me more self concious of the techniques I use when I’m reading with children. I think I was better off not knowing…
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Yes, I use dialogic reading techniques. As the daughter of an education professor I was introduced to the term before I ever actually had a chance to read to kids, but I don’t remember ever making a decision to do it. It just seems natural with some books.
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