A step by step guide for parents and Early Years professionals on how to use Experience Books to support the development of speech and language

1. Supporting Speech and Language Development of Children Using:
Experience Books

2. You can make reading pertinent and
personal for your child by creating
“experience books.”
Experience books provide opportunities
for developing new vocabulary, building
your child’s confidence and developing
an understanding that words and
pictures together can communicate
meaning.
Reading Helps Language
Develop.

3. Pictures are Powerful!
Pictures have to power to hold your
child's attention and to introduce new
ideas. They can help your child gain a
better understanding of what is said or
what will happen in the future. Pictures
can be used to describe feelings,
demonstrate activities, define meaning
and retell experiences.

4. What is more engaging that a book
where they are the main character?
Seeing pictures of themselves and
people they know makes experience
books much more engaging. Make
your child the “star” of their own
experience books and those books are
very likley to become firm favourites.
Let them Shine!

5. Enhance Your Experiences
T E L L O T H E R S A B O U T I T
The experience book provides your
child with a visual prompt which will
help them talk about things they
have done throughout the week with
different people that they see.
M A K E A R E C O R D O F I T
Collect objects, drawings, photographs
and tickets from your experience. Let your
child talk about their understanding and
memory of your time together. You can fill
in some of the gaps but allow them to lead!
S H A R E I T
There are lots of things you can do to
stimulate your child’s imagination and
that will also provide opportunities for
language learning and development.

6. Experience books can be sturdy
and simple and be made from
construction paper, brown paper
bags, file folders or be electronic.
They may contain hand-drawn
pictures, computer graphics.
They might have photos cut and
pasted from magazines, pictures
from the internet or objects
collected on your adventures!
Making your book

7. Ideas to Inspire.

8. “I went in Nana's
garden with Jacob.
We looked under a
rock.
We saw a wiggly
worm!

9. This is Grandpa
Today we played with
pegs and bricks
Grandpa read me a
story called Dear Zoo

10. Shopping
Curtosy of "John Tracy Clinic" https://www.jtc.org/eyes-on-experience-books-using-homemade-books/

11. I Like School
Curtosy of "John Tracy Clinic" https://www.jtc.org/eyes-on-experience-books-using-homemade-books/

12. Trip to the Farm
Curtosy of "Parenting Chaos" https://parentingchaos.com/how-to-make-an-experience-book/

13. When you give your child the chance to
read or re-tell a favourite story, they are
acquiring the pre-literacy skill of
narration. Eventually, after a special day
such as a visiting Nana, your child may
tell that story –with a beginning, a
middle and an ending. He is
communicating his experiences!
Enhancing Narration

14. Use experience books to build a
personal library for your child. As you
both enjoying reading these books over
and over, your child will build memories,
language and communication skills. As
your child keeps his eyes on experience
books you build the foundation for
literacy, too.
From Language to
Literacy.

15. Nursery staff
Grandparents
Friends
Spilling juice in their nappy
A plaster that fell off
Their favourite toy going in the washing machine.
The experience book provides your child with a visual prompt to
help them talk about things they have done throughout the week
with different people that they see
Your child is likely to remember and to want to talk about
experiences that are related to them! You might find your book
filled with stories about
There are no rules! And remember, if it’s not fun - it’s not working!
Choosing a Topic.

16. We'd love your
feedback!
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E M A I L
info@mabletherapy.com