At Almond House Nursery, we provide regular training to build on practitioners’ innate flares of talent. In other words, we have simply evolved our staff into the best storytellers around!

Here are some hints and tips on how you can support your child’s communication and language skills at home:

If your child is a baby, guide them by pointing to the pictures, and say the names of the various objects. By drawing attention to pictures and associating the words with both pictures and the real world objects, your child will learn the names and develop their language skills. This is how your child will pick up their first words!

You may go through a period when your child favours one book and wants it read night after night. It is not unusual for children to favour a particular story, and this can often feel repetitive for parents. Keep in mind, however, that a favourite story may speak to your child’s interests or emotional needs. Be patient. Continue to expose your children to a wealth of other books, as well as their beloved favourites, and eventually they will be ready for more stories.

Use expression in your reading tone. For many children, the love of reading does not come naturally to them. As adults, we have to spark that passion and get them interested.

Try to discuss difficult words in books throughout, or any words they may not know. This sparks curiosity of meanings of new words, but also strongly develops your child’s comprehension of what the meanings of the stories are.

Our nursery ethos heavily surrounds story telling whilst ensuring it is included in many aspects of their routines. With our help, your children can begin a lifelong relationship with reading, not only does this provide them with key life long skills, but can also reduce their frustration so they can grow into confident people who can articulate their thoughts well!