What Is Dialogic Reading? A Way to Help Your Child Talk More

Reading with your child is already powerful—but how you read together can boost their language even more. Dialogic Reading turns story time into a fun conversation instead of just reading page-by-page. Kids learn new words, build longer sentences, and become more confident talkers.

How It Works

With Dialogic Reading, you pause often to talk about the pictures, ask questions, and let your child help “tell” the story. Instead of you doing all the reading, your child becomes an active participant.

We often use easy strategies like:

• PEER:

  • Prompt your child with a question

  • Evaluate their response

  • Expand by adding more detail

  • Repeat the new word or idea together

• CROWD prompts: simple question types like Wh-questions (“What is he doing?”), open-ended prompts (“Tell me about this page”), or completion prompts (“The dog is holding a ___.”)

These small changes lead to big improvements in vocabulary, comprehension, attention, and expressive language.

Why Parents Love It

Dialogic Reading is:

• Fun and interactive

• Perfect for shy or quiet talkers

• Easy to use with any book

• Effective even with just 5–10 minutes a day

At Darling Pediatric Therapy, we use these techniques in sessions and teach parents how to use them at home.