Storytelling, singing and reading
Verbal interactions with babies and toddlers profoundly benefit their language and social development and the caregiver–child bond.
Why focus on this?
Storytelling, singing and reading together create an important foundation for social-emotional development, as well as language development and later literacy, but many caregivers are not aware of the profound impact these simple interactions can have, or how to initiate and sustain them. Responding to young children’s sounds, expressions and movements through conversation has even been linked to IQ in adolescence. Such interactions can take many forms: caregiver literacy is not required! Caregivers can make up their own stories or tell stories from memory, and look at books together.
Talking and singing to infants and young children also supports the development of social-emotional skills: if parents name and discuss their emotions and ask children how they are feeling, children will learn to be aware of their emotions and better able to control them. Learn more about how these interactions strengthen the parent–child bond.
Sample indicators
Number and percentage of:
- Caregivers who told story, read a book or sang songs to child under five years of age within the last day
- Caregivers who read or share stories with children under five years of age at least two or three times per week