All About Books
Recommended Children's Books for Language and Cognitive Development
If You Give A Mouse A Cookie
Age Level: 4-8 years
Language Development
The illustrations are very vivid and detailed, which offers the opportunity to discuss body language, our communication without words. Help your child “read the body clues:” the characters' facial expressions and what their bodies are telling us. Ask children to describe how characters are feeling and what they are thinking and point out observations such as, “I can tell the mouse is really thirsty-- look at his hands holding his neck and his tongue is hanging out!”
Cognitive Development
Adhere to Vygotsky’s Scaffolding Theory (1934) by building on to their knowledge and understanding of the story. Allow your child to learn on their own as you give them hints, prompts, and cues about the story to help them understand what it is about. The child can also practice their private speech by reading the story out loud to themselves in order to eventually develop inner speech. Inner speech happens when an idea or concept can become internalized and we can then solve a problem or complete a task inside of our heads without talking out loud to ourselves. A child has inner speech when they can read the story silently to themselves.
Age Level: 4-8 years
Language Development
The illustrations are very vivid and detailed, which offers the opportunity to discuss body language, our communication without words. Help your child “read the body clues:” the characters' facial expressions and what their bodies are telling us. Ask children to describe how characters are feeling and what they are thinking and point out observations such as, “I can tell the mouse is really thirsty-- look at his hands holding his neck and his tongue is hanging out!”
Cognitive Development
Adhere to Vygotsky’s Scaffolding Theory (1934) by building on to their knowledge and understanding of the story. Allow your child to learn on their own as you give them hints, prompts, and cues about the story to help them understand what it is about. The child can also practice their private speech by reading the story out loud to themselves in order to eventually develop inner speech. Inner speech happens when an idea or concept can become internalized and we can then solve a problem or complete a task inside of our heads without talking out loud to ourselves. A child has inner speech when they can read the story silently to themselves.
The Very Busy Spider
Age Level: 3-6 years
Language Development
The repeated questions of the animals, teaches a child how to order a word in a sentence for the format of a question. The ordering of words in a sentence is called semantics. The child can also understand how to act in a social context when they do not understand something and need to ask their friend a question. This is called pragmatics, knowing which language or grammar to use in a social context. The animal noises written out can help a child develop phonology, the specific sounds we have to make from our mouth to form a word. By allowing your child to practice and repeat animal sounds, you are allowing them to develop their skills on phonology.
Cognitive Development
Children can develop new schemes about what different types of animals are from this book (Piaget). They can pair the noises the animals make to the specific animals and also have the ability to touch the different textures of the book and learn on their own. Parents can also use scaffolding with this book to prompt the child to tell them what noise a specific animal makes. This will help the child understand the world of animals better.
Age Level: 3-6 years
Language Development
The repeated questions of the animals, teaches a child how to order a word in a sentence for the format of a question. The ordering of words in a sentence is called semantics. The child can also understand how to act in a social context when they do not understand something and need to ask their friend a question. This is called pragmatics, knowing which language or grammar to use in a social context. The animal noises written out can help a child develop phonology, the specific sounds we have to make from our mouth to form a word. By allowing your child to practice and repeat animal sounds, you are allowing them to develop their skills on phonology.
Cognitive Development
Children can develop new schemes about what different types of animals are from this book (Piaget). They can pair the noises the animals make to the specific animals and also have the ability to touch the different textures of the book and learn on their own. Parents can also use scaffolding with this book to prompt the child to tell them what noise a specific animal makes. This will help the child understand the world of animals better.