Use Free Audio Books And Downloadable Stories To Increase Your Child's Language Skills

Right now, somewhere in the world, in a language you may or may not know, a child is looking up at his mom or dad and making this earnest request: "Will you read me a story?" Children love stories. Stories take children to faraway places where they meet fascinating people and wondrous creatures, explore mind-boggling landscapes, experience the thrill of fantastic adventures, and grapple with basic human questions. According to David Rose and Bridget Dalton, whose research appears on the website Listening Through Learning, developing listening skills is more important now than ever. Listening to stories---whether read to them in person or in the form of an audiobook or downloadable story---helps children develop the brain's capacity for three aspects of successful listening: comprehending words and sentence structure; recognizing the relative importance, mood and even intent of words and sounds; and the ability to listen actively.

Comprehending words and sentence structure

Listening to stories, whether around the dinner table, told in person at bedtime, or on a MP3 player in a variety of situations, increases a child's vocabulary. He is bound to be introduced to what researchers call "rare" words (that is, words that a child of his age is unlikely to know). Exposure to rare words challenges a child to think in ways that increase his fundamental linguistic skills.