Your Questions Answered
What is the best age for children to start listening to storybooks?
There isn't a perfect age - as soon as you feel comfortable with it. I read to my son when he was a couple of weeks old. Obviously he is not learning anything about vocabulary, but what children at that age learn is the tone you use. They hear the different intonations in your voice and the different emphasis you put on words. As a parent with an infant it is very often soothing and a nice, calming part of the day. Make sure you are reading from a picture book so that they can look at the pictures. They will learn that pictures and text are connected.
What kind of skills does a parent learn from your reading workshop? How can these help?
They learn two sets of skills. The first is knowledge. We inform parents about the relationship between reading and a child's development. Children need to understand the cause of reading - the words in the books are communicating messages and they need to be ready for that. We also teach how to choose a book, by looking at age, interest and language level. We talk about the ways to tell a story, for example using your voice, your intonation, the appropriate pace, how to draw a child's attention to a picture by asking some questions about characters or plot. We give parents some ideas on how to make use of props to tell a story more interestingly. We also give parents some ideas on how to get their children involved in storytelling.
What is a suitable age for children to start reading books by themselves?