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While talking to your child consistently in Spanish is important towards your success, this alone won’t help your child achieve higher language proficiency. Written text includes more sophisticated grammar and vocabulary than everyday speech does, and it is this text that will push your child’s language development to even greater heights. Therefore, reading aloud in Spanish daily to your child is critical. Doing so for at least 15 minutes from day one will allow your family to establish a rhythm and love for reading. As Adam Beck’s Maximize Your Child’s Bilingual Ability says:

“…but if you continue to read these books daily, over time the child’s brain will absorb the language it hears and comprehension, then communication, will be the eventual result”.

Reading aloud in Spanish to your children will equip them with a more robust vocabulary and spark a love for reading that will only empower them in the future.

I find many bilingual parents asking: How do I successfully read aloud to my child in Spanish? What language do I use when talking about the book with my child? As a bilingual parent myself, I’ve too asked these questions, researched answers, and experimented with all of the styles. Below I answer both of these questions.

*Utilize the pictures to build meaning

As you read the text, point to parts of the picture that corelate to it. Remember, while you have your eyes on the text, your young child is staring at the pictures. This helps give meaning to your words and make connections faster for your young child if you are pointing at the pictures. This should be done since infancy. What you say is just sound until it’s given meaning, and the best way to make this correlation is to point out the pictures while saying the words. Discuss what the pictures show. (More on how to discuss the pictures below.)

*Include meaningful actions

I’ve found that a great way to get my child, as well as my students, engaged in a read-aloud is to teach them actions to part of the stories. One instance where I’ve done this with my toddler is in reading one of her construction books. As the text says “the crane reaches high, high, high“, I read it with enthusiasm and stretch one arm up high and have my daughter do the same. Another instance I did this recently was while reading El pequeño pez blanco organiza una fiesta. We adore this book as my daughter is just about to celebrate her second birthday as well. In the book, each guest that will be attending the party is a different sea animal and an adjective is used to describe it. So while we read about la serpiente marina larga, I show my hands being stretched wide and long. After repeat reading the book enough times, my daughter can now do the motions herself. (See my video below.)

If doing a read aloud to older kids, and it’s not before bedtime, have the children act out the story or do their own actions that give meaning to the story. All the while, they are still engaged with the content and connecting meaning to the vocabulary. Best of all, they can be using the dialogue to practice speaking as well.

*Repeat and repeat

Repeat the words: For certain books, there are parts where you can have your child repeat the word or short phrase that you said. This gets them talking during the reading as well.

Repeat read: Read those books over and over again until you can read it with your eyes closed. Especially for the little ones, being able to “read” a story is them retelling it after having heard it so many times. This is a vital step in building literacy.

*Pause

After reading a book enough times, pause when you get to a well known part for your child to fill in the blank or to continue a phrase. You’ll be amazed how your child’s vocabulary will grow using this strategy.

*Use voices when reading aloud

When reading a story with dialogue, use different voices for the different characters. Make sure to use fluctuation with your voice. If it’s an exciting part, your voice should sound exciting. I kid you not, I used the pause strategy in a book recently, and my child continued the sentence using the same excitement in her voice that I always use. She’s learning to be a great reader just by listening to me reading aloud.

In the video below, I demonstrate how to use the pictures, actions, and pausing while reading El pequeño pez blanco organiza una fiesta. You’ll love how engaged my daughter is and how much Spanish we’re using!

*Read bilingual books

Bilingual books can range from word books to longer story books where the text is in both languages. So what’s the right way to read a bilingual book you may ask? I don’t think there’s a right way, but here are the options I find to be more comfortable and natural feeling.

• *Read through the entire book in one language (L1) and then read again in the second language (L2).
• *Read the entire book in L1 many times while the child gets familiar with the book. Later you can switch to reading the same book in the L2 so the child can make connections between the two languages.
• *If it’s a word book, like Primeras 100 Palabras book, feel free to read the word in both languages one right after the other or focus just on teaching the names of the objects in one language and add the other at a later time.

However, there is one way of reading a bilingual book that does not feel natural to me. With bilingual story books, I prefer not to read an entire section/sentence/phrase in one language and then repeat right after its translation. Doing this seems to interrupt the natural flow of reading a story and disengage the reader. Stick to the other ways mentioned above with bilingual books.

Translate books into Spanish

For many, getting books in the Spanish language can be a challenge. So, depending on your own Spanish ability level, one option is to simultaneously translate a book that is say written in English into Spanish as you read aloud to your child. One warning though: children’s books that rhyme can be an extra challenge to translate.

TIP: As my child has quite a few English books that she’s drawn to on her shelf, I frequently am translating them as I read aloud. However, there have been many times where I stumble across a word I might not remember how to say in Spanish. This happened recently with the word fishing pole. I blanked while reading, so I just said it in English while pointing it out in the picture and went on. When I was done, I left the book open to that page until I had a free moment to look up the translation. I jotted down caña de pescar on a sticky note, stuck it on the page, and the next time we read the book I was able to stay in the Spanish language even more so. I kept the sticky note in the book until I had it memorized.

Narrate wordless picture books

There are many picture books out there that don’t have much or any text to go along with them. Engage your imagination and craft a story to go along with the illustrations in whatever language you choose. Give the characters names, describe what they are doing in the illustrations, create a back story that led to the character doing what its doing, and create a problem to the story to allow it to potentially be solved in the end. The details of your story can change with each retelling. Best of all, recruit your child to help you create the story. These books are especially great for multilingual families!

You Choose is not entirely wordless but it’s a fun book for older children that will keep you constantly talking as you choose how the story continues. Flashlight is a great wordless option for young children. Try searching for other books like these using the phrases: “wordless picture books” or “stories without words”.