An important part of understanding stories is recognizing that characters have unique thoughts and feelings that influence what they say and do. Use these research-based tips to build the important perspective-taking skills that prepare your child for reading.

Emergent literacy skills are the building blocks of learning to read and write. These early skills are essential for all children to learn. For young autistic children, it's important to consider their individual strengths and interests when deciding how best to support their emergent literacy skills.

Your child may understand what is happening in a book, but what about why it’s happening?  Talking about the reasons things happen in a story helps your child make important cause-and-effect connections, which deepens their story understanding. Here are some tips to help! 

Use the Hanen strategy, “Shoot for the SSTaRS” to help your child learn the kinds of higher-level words that prepare them for school success.

Helping a child understand less commonly used words will have a big impact on their reading and writing abilities later on. In this Book Nook, we share some helpful strategies to introduce rare words to children and to ensure they really understand them. 

Did you know that engaging your child in a conversation about a story greatly increases the likelihood they’ll understand it? Read on for some tips to turn book reading into a conversation with the fun book, Not a Box.

One of the best ways to build your child’s understanding of stories is to relate what’s happening in the book to things your child already knows or has experienced. Come along for the ride as we look at this fun book about a Grandma with thirty grandchildren and learn some tips for building your child’s comprehension.

Sharing books is a great way to build your child’s language and early literacy skills. But what if your child doesn’t seem interested in books or doesn’t pay attention for long? If this sounds like your child, you might need to experiment with different kinds of books to see what catches your child’s interest. Here are some ideas to try!

Rhyming books are one of the best tools for promoting sound awareness, a skill that prepares children for connecting the letters they see on a page with the sounds they represent. In this Book Nook, we share a fun Hanen strategy that you can use when sharing rhyming books with your child.