Reading with non-speaking children

Also called Shared reading, Interactive reading, Reading aloud with AAC

Shared reading when the child cannot read aloud: how to make it a conversation rather than a performance, and why it matters more, not less.

What it is

Shared reading is an adult and a child with a book between them, and it's one of the strongest things a family can do for language. For a non-speaking child it tends to shrink into the adult reading and the child listening, because the usual back-and-forth (the child naming the picture, joining in the repeated line, answering "what's he doing?") seems unavailable. It isn't. It needs a different set of responses, and once you have them, the book becomes a conversation again.

The point is not to get through the book. The point is what passes between you on the way.

Who it can help

Families and staff of children who don't speak or speak very little, from babies to teenagers, and adults with a learning disability who enjoy books. It works with children who use symbols, sign, eye gaze or nothing yet. It is not a reading lesson, and it isn't reserved for children who can already follow a story; the pleasure comes first and the language follows.

Children with a visual impairment or deafblindness share books through touch and sound, with textured pages and objects; the principle is the same.

How it works

Shared reading feeds vocabulary with words that don't come up in conversation, teaches story structure (narrative skills), and creates hundreds of moments of joint attention with a word attached. It also teaches that print carries meaning, which is the foundation of literacy.

For a non-speaking child, the adaptations are about response. Give the child a way to say "turn the page", "again", "stop", "look", "funny" and "don't like it": a small core board beside the book, or the Talk board on a phone with its sentence starters and feelings sets. Read the same book many times, so the child can predict and join in with a symbol or a sign. Pause at the repeated line and wait for them to fill it, however they fill it. Comment more than you question; a child who's asked "what's that?" ten times a page learns to dread books.

Getting started

Choose a book the child already likes and put a way to comment beside it: a few symbols ("more", "again", "no", "funny", "look") on paper or on a screen. Read it. Stop at the good bits and wait. Whatever the child does in the gap, treat it as a contribution and respond to it.

Let the child hold the pace. Turning pages, going back to the same page six times, closing the book: all of that is communication about the book, and honouring it makes the next session more likely.

Do it every day, briefly. Ten minutes at bedtime for a year is over sixty hours of language, from a child who was "not ready for books".

Where to get help

ACE Centre publishes free guidance on shared reading with AAC. Communication Matters for symbol-supported books and the people who make them. Beyond Words publishes picture stories for people who find words hard, and public libraries lend them. For children with a visual impairment, the Royal National Institute of Blind People has tactile books.