Want to help your child develop their vocabulary? Pick a picture book for their bedtime story.

Books with no words are actually best for boosting children’s language skills, a study has found.

Experts said parents who turn to wordless storybooks end up spending time discussing the pictures and answering their toddler’s questions – exposing them to complicated words.

The study looked at 25 mothers as they read their children a set of bedtime stories.

Psychologists from the University of Waterloo, Canada, found the mothers used more advanced  language when they picked up a picture book compared to a book with words.

Study author professor Daniela O’Neill said: ‘Too often parents will dismiss picture storybooks, especially when they are wordless, as not real reading or just for fun. But these findings show that reading picture storybooks with kids exposes them to the kind of talk that is really important for children to hear.

‘Mums frequently used more forms of complex talk when reading the picture storybook to their child than the picture-vocabulary book.’

She added: ‘Books of all kinds can build children’s language and literacy skills, but they do so perhaps in different ways.

‘It’s exciting to find even wordless picture books provide children with exposure to sophisticated language that lays the foundation for reading.’

The researchers were especially interested in looking at the language mothers use when reading both wordless picture storybooks and picture vocabulary books to see if parents provided extra information to children like relating the events of the story to the child’s own experiences or asking their child to make predictions.

Prof O’Neill said: ‘When reading the picture story, we would hear mums say things such as “where do you think the squirrel is going to go?” or “we saw a squirrel this morning in the backyard.”

‘But we didn’t hear this kind of complex talk as often with vocabulary books, where mentioning just the name of the animal, for example, was more common.’

The researchers said the study results are important for both parents and teachers because vocabulary books are often promoted as being more educational.

Prof O’Neill said: ‘Books of all kinds can build children’s language and literacy skills, but they do so perhaps in different ways.’

Source: Daily Mail