Episode 1: The Bedtime Story
Summary Keywords
reading, children, story, parents, book, bedtime story, experiences, kids, characters, bedtime stories, special needs, illustrates, words, voice, adults, understand
00:04 Storyteller
Once upon a time, there were three little pigs, and the time came for them to leave home and seek their fortunes. Before they left, their mother told them, “whatever you do, do it the best that you can, because that's the way to get along in the world”.
00:21 Child
I don’t like it. It’s a bit funny.
00:28 Host, Loh Chin Ee
A classic 80s TV show featured a host talking with a child about life called ‘Kids Say the Darndest Things’. It captured the candid replies from children and delighted audiences with their unfiltered and comedic take on things. Young children are going through tremendous changes, including physical growth, emotional awareness and intellectual development. reading to children from a young age helps them develop and is one of the best ways to begin a child's lifelong reading journey. But how does one read to children? And how can we do it better? In this episode, I'm going to explore both the art and science of the bedtime story and discover how reading stories to and with young children can make a real difference to their reading development. I'm Loh Chin Ee. Welcome to the ‘How We Read’ podcast.
01:22 Host, Loh Chin Ee
Chapter One: The Bedtime Story.
01:26 Host, Loh Chin Ee
Once upon a time, there was a bedtime story. We often hear reading experts talk about the importance of the bedtime story. But what is the bedtime story? And why is it so important? Dr. Jo Ann Netto-Shek is a lecturer on children's literature at the National Institute of Education.
01:47 Dr. Jo Ann Netto-Shek
Bedtime stories are stories that are read to the child. It's usually at the end, just before sleeping. Some of the stories actually help the child to decompress, actually be in a comfortable state that will help them sleep. Bedtime stories are really intimate bonding experiences between parent and child. It is through the story, right, that the child opens up and shares what has been happening in the day for them, stuff they're struggling with, what they admire.
02:16 Host, Loh Chin Ee
This bedtime reading is really a proxy for dedicating time to read with a child. It represents a time of intimacy and bonding over a good story. It's an occasion for the parent to teach the child how to read by role modeling what it means to read. Children learn how to handle a book from handling it with others.
02:38 Host, Loh Chin Ee
Children's book author, Lianne Ong, sees bedtime stories as the best way to introduce good reading habits from an early age.
02:46 Lianne Ong
When they were younger, like from infancy to say, K2, we had a ritual of reading to them every day at bedtime, and also at other times, before they entered preschool. But our bedtime ritual was we would choose a few picture books, and they would choose a few, and we would just read and read until, you know, it was time for bed and then we tuck them in.
03:13 Host, Loh Chin Ee
While it is called the bedtime story, you can read to children throughout the day.
03:18 Lianne Ong
Except for Phoebe, sometimes I still read to her, especially when she's biased about some titles, but I have a good hunch that, you know, she'll enjoy it. So, I will pick up that book and I'll read her a chapter or two in different voices. I think she is entertained by that and I find it quite amusing as well. It's just more kind of incidental now. We don't necessarily do it at a fixed time, just whenever we have pockets of time, we just pick up a book.
03:49 Host, Loh Chin Ee
Anybody can read to a child: parents, relatives or teachers. Valerie Yong, mum of three, tells us how her husband was involved.
03:58 Valerie Yong
It was such a very nice bedtime arrangement where my husband Terrence would read to Alexi and the both of them will be lost in the world. It was just such a routine that went on for many years. Until now, Alexi will go over and ask her daddy to read her favorite stories every night, and it really brings a smile to her face.
02:46 Host, Loh Chin Ee
Jo Ann tells us that stories are a platform to bond with a child.
04:25 Dr. Jo Ann Netto-Shek
Stories are a great way to help the child get a peek into your world and how you are processing your experiences. Allow the child to talk with you about the story and what they like about the story and what they don't like about the story. Usually, kids will respond by sharing what they like about the story.
04:45 Host, Loh Chin Ee
By reading to and with children, parents expose their children to a world of words and stories. While the child may not know how to read the words on the page, they build up a familiarity with books that will help them enjoy reading. This contributes to later proficiency.
05:03 Dr. Jo Ann Netto-Shek
It starts with actually listening and then it moves into related processes that deal with learning to read. Kids have to first know the structure of the English sound system. Once they develop an understanding that words actually have parts to the sound system, they develop what we call phonemic awareness. They start to also recognize that these sounds are represented on the page through letters. That starts the whole reading process. So they recognize the sounds first, and then they try and locate the sounds on the page. And then they try to decode it as they deal with longer words, polysyllabic words, etc. To help them decode, they have to hear a lot of the language. And sometimes it's true, just, you know, listening to conversations and things like that. But often, it is best through listening to stories, and entering story worlds and seeing how the language creates story worlds and how characters interact in it. And from there, they start to develop this ability and confidence to continue with decoding and then pushing on with comprehension. They also start to develop also a real sense that words actually create worlds. They are actually looking for the kinds of words that are found in the story that created that experience or that world for them. That's how kids learn to read.
06:37 Host, Loh Chin Ee
I promise I would explore both the art and science behind a bedtime story. First, the science. Research describes emergent reading this way. Children first begin reading pictures with oral-like language. For example, a nursery rhyme.
06:55 Child
Hickory dickory dock. The mouse went up the clock. The mouse went ding. The mouse went dong. Hickory dickory dock.
07:08 Host, Loh Chin Ee
Children then start to read pictures with text-like language.
07:12 Child
Once upon a time, there's a father, he built a gigantic brick house.
07:20 Host, Loh Chin Ee
At the next stage of reading, children memorize the stories they like. Actor, performer and storyteller, Dwayne Lau shares his experience with his godchildren.
07:30 Dwayne Lau
With my god-kids, they memorize. She was reading, kind of like, reciting something from the book. And then I thought, this doesn't make sense. She's not even looking at the words. She's looking at the pictures. So I just closed the book, and she carried on. So she memorized it. Kids’ memories are really magical because, I remember, when I was six years old, this was watching my sister rehearsing. She was playing Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz. I would sit in their rehearsals at the old Victoria Theatre and I'll be watching the rehearsals over there as a six year old kid. And I could remember word for word all the lines. I would go back and I would recite that entire text. My parents were like, how is he doing this, you know, and I could do it. Kids have an amazing memory like almost like a photographic memory and they go back and they recite it.
08:12 Host, Loh Chin Ee
That's why nursery rhymes and stories with a strong rhythm and pattern such as Dr. Seuss’ books and Michael Rosen’s ‘We're Going on a Bear Hunt’ are so well loved by children. They're easy to remember. Finally, children move into what we categorize as reading when they began to independently recognize the words on a page.
08:34 Lianne Ong
I would say before K2, it seemed slow. Then in K2, I think both of them just probably had that ‘aha’ moment and then they were off on their own reading junior chapter books.
08:48 Host, Loh Chin Ee
Children typically acquire enough proficiency to read independently between seven to nine years old. The more we provide chances for children to enjoy reading, the more they read. The more they read, the more practice they get, and reading becomes even more enjoyable. And that's how the lifelong reading habit begins: with the bedtime story.
09:11 Host, Loh Chin Ee
Chapter Two: Making Stories Come Alive.
09:16 Dwayne Lau
Baa baa black sheep. Have you any wool? Yes, sir, yes, sir, three bags full. One for the master, one for the dame, and one for the little boy who lives down the lane.
09:31 Child
Boring! It’s too childish. Can I just get out now?
09:36 Host, Loh Chin Ee
From the science of the bedtime story, we now explore the art. William Shakespeare wrote, “all the world's a stage”. And for parents and educators, making stories come alive can be daunting because reading a story aloud comes with the added pressure of performance.
09:56 Host, Loh Chin Ee
I reached out to the theatre community to understand how seasoned actors and performers take the words off a page and onto a stage. I sat down with Hossan Leong, an actor, comedian, producer, and DJ, and Dwayne Lau whom you heard earlier. Both are multi-disciplinarians, comfortable performing in any setting.
10:20 Dwayne Lau
I realized that kids are very animated and they latch on to you, you know, they follow you throughout the whole story. You have that responsibility to bring that story to life and make sure what you are portraying is accurate. When I tell stories to kids, I realize that as adults, sometimes you kind of lose focus but kids are really, really interested even if there's no images and you're just telling the story to them. Their imagination runs wild.
10:43 Host, Loh Chin Ee
Dwayne speaks from his own experience, remembering how his mother read stories to him.
10:48 Dwayne Lau
I would imagine how Rapunzel would look like. I would imagine how Little Red Riding Hood would look like. So I guess as I'm telling stories to kids nowadays, I know that that's what's going on in their mind. They are also imagining and creating an idea of what these characters look like.
11:03 Host, Loh Chin Ee
You can lead children to reading by creating pleasurable reading experiences for them. With a book in hand and time set aside, I asked my theater pros for suggestions on how to best read to children. For Hossan Leong, the first and most important thing is to approach reading with an open mind.
11:23 Hossan Leong
I would always encourage parents and adults when they go into storytelling for kids to let their guard down and let their inner child take over because the joy of seeing a kid laugh, you know, and it’s so pure when they do it with no ulterior motive. They're not laughing to please you. They're laughing because you've made them happy. And I think that's something that you cannot quantify.
11:48 Host, Loh Chin Ee
Setting the right environment is important from the beginning.
11:52 Dwayne Lau
I think the environment of telling the story is important. If they're in their beds in their pajamas, and then you on a little nightlight. So, you turn off the white boring fluorescent lights or you have a little, like, fairy light. So you make it a bit more fun and more cozy, slightly more conducive environment for them to be in the receptive end.
12:08 Host, Loh Chin Ee
Taking the time to pre-read the story helps immerse you in the book and brings the characters alive.
12:14 Hossan Leong
Understand what you're reading. Because when you are reading something that's so descriptive, especially for children, it should ignite your imagination. You should see the story unfold as you read it. The more you let yourself imagine the story and you see the animals, you see the fairy godmother, the wicked queen, you know, then it starts to inhabit your voice, your body even. When you inhabit the characters and you inhabit the situations that the story tells, you will find yourself loosening up, and you'll find yourself enjoying the story because you're caught up in it as well. And when you invest in it, the children will believe you and you become the Pied Piper, you lead them along this journey, the story. And once you've got them in your hands, you can say anything and do anything and the kids will respond.
13:08 Host, Loh Chin Ee
Reviewing a book beforehand gives a parent or educator the opportunity to use storytelling as a vocabulary building exercise.
13:17 Dwayne Lau
What's important is that you look through the story beforehand and you kind of highlight the adjectives, the descriptive words like: it was an enchanted forest. So, if parents can just highlight these words, it's like oral, English oral, you know, you learned in school. What are the important words you want to highlight, underline? ‘Beautiful’. So instead of “she was a beautiful princess”, you go “she was a beautiful princess”. If they can just make a little bit of effort to kind of highlight all these adjectives and descriptive words, that helps the children understand. And I think what might help is you can stop to ask the kids, “do you understand what ‘enchanted’ means?” And then you can describe: ‘enchanted’ means magical. So, in that sense, the kids also learned a new word, ‘enchanted’, you know, because they know what ‘magical’ is but they may not have heard what ‘enchanted’ is. So that's a good teaching point also.
14:05 Host, Loh Chin Ee
One topic that brings trepidation for adults is how to use character voices and prompts when reading to children. This is best illustrated by hearing how we can adjust a performance based on our audience. I asked Hossan to read a few lines from The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Here, he is reading to an adult.
14:24 Hossan Leong
“Now, my dears,” said old Mrs. Rabbit one morning, “you may go into the fields or down the lane but don't go into Mr. McGregor's garden. Your father had an accident there and he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor.”
14:39 Host, Loh Chin Ee
And now the same segment again. But this time Hossan is reading to a child.
14:44 Hossan Leong
“Now, my dears,” said old Mrs. Rabbit one morning, “you may go into the fields or down the lane but don't go into Mr. McGregor's garden. Your father had an accident there and he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor.”
15:03 Host, Loh Chin Ee
The words are the same, but the performance is dramatically different.
15:08 Hossan Leong
I will go into character voices, especially if it's children's stories, because it's so much more colorful. It's so much more interesting to get into the character that you are portraying and then change back to narrator voice. So, by doing that, the kids understand where you are going, because it's just you. So how are you going to make it interesting? You have to play. You have to go beyond your comfort zone and get under the skin of the story.
15:33 Host, Loh Chin Ee
Lianne, who often reads her books for children, tells us to put ourselves in the shoes of the characters.
15:38 Lianne Ong
I think you really have to emote and put yourself in the shoes of that character. You don't just read the whole thing like a narrator. You know, you have to imagine yourself in the shoes of the protagonist or whatever and exaggerate. Like, really make your voice with highs and lows and exaggerate it and I think kids pick up on that. They pick up on the differences in the volume of your voice, and how you enunciate certain things, stuff like that. The rhythms, also.
16:14 Host, Loh Chin Ee
Don't worry if you can't be as dramatic as Hossan. The important thing is to just start reading. Time spent together is what your child wants most. And the more you read, the better you get at reading.
16:27 Host, Loh Chin Ee
Chapter Three: Stories to See the World.
16:30 Storyteller
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty together again.
16:45 Child
I like the voice of the guy telling us that Humpty Dumpty. So funny, you know.
16:52 Host, Loh Chin Ee
The stories we choose to read to our children allow them to imagine and shape their views of the world. Dwayne now illustrates this with The Rainbow Fish.
17:01 Dwayne Lau
If the story is about Rainbow Fish, and the Rainbow Fish has silver scales, and I want to make an impact about sharing and not being selfish, so I know beforehand, when I come to this aspect of being selfish or being selfless, I want to spend a little bit more time here. So that's where I think rehearsals or a little bit of preparation comes in very handy. Because at the end of the day, apart from just reading a story and entertaining the kids, you want them to bring something back. A moral or a value that you want them to learn. I mean, that's the whole point of stories as well.
17:30 Host, Loh Chin Ee
Author Lianne Ong is conscious that decisions she makes in how she writes can have an effect.
17:36 Lianne Ong
I try to make sure that the protagonist is not always male. I want her to know that there are good female protagonists that are interesting and have strengths and all that too. I write about topics that I think children should know about. So, for example, for special needs, there are a lot of preconceived notions that we have. And even as parents, sometimes we accidentally or inevitably say something that creates prejudices in the minds of our children. So, in my special needs series, I try to dispel those myths and I want to put forward positive messages. So, for example, special needs, people are employable, they are trainable. They have feelings too, just like we do, but their behavior might look strange to us. But there's a reason for it. Parents wrote to me to say that my special needs series was a very good conversation starter for them with their children so that they had a tool to begin with, rather than just randomly bringing up special needs and, you know, pointing out a special needs child on the bus or whatever, right, so it was a gentle way to bring up the topic in a sensitive way.
18:57 Host, Loh Chin Ee
In this digital age, parents might ask if they can offload the task of bedtime reading to an app. After all, it's read aloud function and interactivity are appealing. However, research does show that parents tend to use eBooks as virtual babysitters, leaving children literally to their own devices. Unlike an eBook, most parents and adults are more likely to read to and interact with children when using physical books.
19:26 Hossan Leong
So you got the visuals, you see. If I'm reading, and I'm making facial expressions and body movements, and if you go one step further, you've got props, you’ve got for costumes, you've got stuff, of course it comes alive in a different way.
19:37 Host, Loh Chin Ee
The human touch is key to a young child enjoying the reading experience. Moreover, Jo Ann reminds us that it's the conversations that follow which are also critical.
19:49 Dr. Jo Ann Netto-Shek
It’s actually the conversations after that, that you have with a kid that actually helps them to kind of fuel the reason to find out more or to enquire, right, about certain topics that might be found in a book. If a child has read a particular book like Dog Man, let's say, and he's telling you a little episode about what happens in Dog Man, and you're, you know, you're laughing with him, and you said, you know, I wonder if actual dogs do this kind of thing, and it could set him thinking about, yeah, I wonder what are the natural behaviors of dogs. And then you might want to pick up a non-fiction book on dogs and their behaviors. And then he can sort of extend the conversation with you to say that, “hey, you know, I found out and that's actually true. This Dog Man actually has all the behaviors of a certain breed of dogs. Maybe not all dogs but a certain breed of dog does this kind of thing.” So, it is actually the conversations after that, that's kind of significant.
20:46 Host, Loh Chin Ee
Mum, Valerie, agrees.
20:49 Valerie Yong
It usually meant a bath and then brushing their teeth, followed by reading maybe a short book, not more than five to ten minutes. It really involved me asking them questions, whether they understood the story or which part was their favorite, who was their favorite character. So it was actually good interaction with them. It actually helped them form certain ideas and also for me to understand them better.
21:20 Host, Loh Chin Ee
When children experience pleasurable and successful reading experiences with others, they want more.
21:27 Dr. Jo Ann Netto-Shek
Here is when the parent can share equally successful moments that parent has had. You know, I read this other book, and this is how I felt. Is that how you felt? Allow the child to talk as much as they can about the book and relive that experience, you know, that positive experience they had when they were reading.
21:44 Host, Loh Chin Ee
Reading with a child takes time and dedication. It's not at all easy. Not all parents have time or opportunity to read to their children. Not all children have the privilege of enjoying such reading experiences, which are the first step to whetting an appetite for reading. It is vital for educators to integrate reading for pleasure into early childhood in primary school education,
22:09 Dr. Jo Ann Netto-Shek
You have to sort of understand that this is the background of the child and that child may not have very many reading experiences, and what a valuable part of reading, right, is missed out when they don't have these experiences. So as a teacher, you need to fill in the gap for them. And I would encourage teachers really to take any moment, you know, if you can read a part of a book or a book that illustrates a point you're trying to make to the class, to the children, take that opportunity, because not only will it illustrate, but the children will learn so much more right from the story and they would see and they remember these experiences as positive experiences that helped them learn. And any kind of positive emotion they have towards stories, right, is a good thing, because it develops positive reader identities in children.
23:03 Host, Loh Chin Ee
So, what's the moral of today's story? The first step to helping your child or student become a reader is to read together. In this way, the pleasure of the reading experience is shared and caught for young and not so young children. The most important thing we can do as adults is to regularly read our children a story.
23:27 Valerie Yong
And they live happily ever after. Good night, Victoria.
23:31 Child
Goodnight, mummy.
23:38 Host, Loh Chin Ee
Thank you for listening to the ‘How We Read’ podcast episode on The Bedtime Story. This episode was written and hosted by me, Loh Chin Ee, and my thanks goes to all our guests, both young and a little older, who shared their insights with us. The nursery rhymes and stories were read by Hossan Leong, Dwayne Lau, Brendon Fernandez and Remesh Panicker. This episode was produced by Kenn Delbridge of Splice Studios. Swipe on the cover art to see show notes with links and references. We’re available on all major podcast apps. Please subscribe to be notified of new episodes and take a moment to give us a five-star review. For more information, please visit lohchinee.com.