Use Free Audio Books and Downloadable Stories to Increase Your Child's Language Skills

Right now, somewhere in the world, in a language you may or may not know, a child is looking up at his mom or dad and making this earnest request: "Will you read me a story?"

Children love stories. Stories take children to faraway places where they meet fascinating people and wondrous creatures, explore mind-boggling landscapes, experience the thrill of fantastic adventures, and grapple with basic human questions. According to David Rose and Bridget Dalton, whose research appears on the website Listening Through Learning, developing listening skills is more important now than ever. Listening to stories---whether read to them in person or in the form of an audiobook or downloadable story---helps children develop the brain's capacity for three aspects of successful listening: comprehending words and sentence structure; recognizing the relative importance, mood and even intent of words and sounds; and the ability to listen actively.

Comprehending words and sentence structure

Hansel and Gretel, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, The Bremen Town Musicians, Rumpelstiltskin and Cinderella---many children today may assume these stories were written by Walt Disney (or the Disney Channel), rather than transcribed by the Grimm Brothers in the early years of the 19^th century in Germany. Jacob Ludwig and Wilhelm Carl Grimm published their first collection of German folktales, Kinder- und Hausmärchen ("Children's and Household Tales"), in 1812. A second volume soon followed and the rest is (Disney) history.

Amazing, isn't it? In a world now inundated with media in every conceivable genre, millions and millions of children still are enchanted with the fate of Sleeping Beauty, the trials of Cinderella, the adventures of The Bremen Town Musicians, and the braggart's trap in Rumpelstiltskin (a version of which even appeared in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine). A good story is timeless---and priceless.

Listening to stories, whether around the dinner table, told in person at bedtime, or on a MP3 player in a variety of situations, increases a child's vocabulary. He is bound to be introduced to what researchers call "rare" words (that is, words that a child of his age is unlikely to know). Exposure to rare words challenges a child to think in ways that increase his fundamental linguistic skills.

According to Diane E. Beals and Patton O. Tabors, whose research on the effect of exposing children to rare words was published in First Language, children can learn up to an astounding 28 new words per day---seemingly, without even trying.

This fact tells us a lot about how kids increase their vocabulary: it's not solely, or even mostly, by studying definitions. "Kids learn such a vast number of words that it would be generally impossible to learn all of those by somebody saying, 'OK, this word means. ...' You can't do it by direct instruction," explains Beals. "But kids have this incredible ability to infer things, to figure out how somebody is using a word from the immediate context."

When children listen to literary stories, even those written for the very young, they invariably encounter new vocabulary words. They also are exposed to sentence structures---syntax---that they are unlikely to hear on a regular basis on television or in movies or music. With the multitude of free, fee, and subscription downloads available on the web, parents can easily, quickly and conveniently offer their children an endless variety of audiobooks and stories that will naturally increase vocabulary and help children internalize their language's structure and grammar. Some public libraries also offer audiobook downloads.

Recognizing importance, mood and intent

Nothing demonstrates how critical it is to be able to pick up on the importance, mood and intent of a sentence as the emoticon. Yes, I'm talking about, among other things, those little blinking smiley faces, steaming, red faces, and dancing bananas---as well as notations such as "LOL" and "/s".

Emoticons prove how ill-suited the "naked" written word can be for conveying everything the author intends to convey. Emoticons are the way we try to indicate the non-verbal meaning of our words. We need that "voice" component to accurately understand the message---because, without the ability to hear the writer's voice, "Pound sand!" might come across as something very different from "Pound sand! LOL." But the foundation for recognizing the importance, mood and intent of words is learned first through listening.

This gives listening skills vastly increased prominence today. In How New Technologies are Changing the Relationship Between Literacy and Listening, the authors point out that, in most cultures, the written word became dominant simply because it was relatively permanent (and, therefore, also more easily transferable).

In this age of new media, however, the spoken word is more permanent and transferable than ever. In fact, Rose and Dalton observe, children in this new media age "live in a sea of oral language and sound." Thus, the ability to listen, and listen well, is now integral to basic literacy.

This fact makes it even more important for children to learn how to follow complex ideas and storylines through listening. More than simply getting the "plot," it takes practice to pick up on the "rest of the story"---all that non-word content that comes from how things are said. When children listen to a variety of audiobooks and downloadable stories, they naturally evaluate the speaker's tone, pitch, volume, sequence, pacing, pauses, inflection, and many other things that provide rich and meaningful information to a skilled listener.

Listen actively

Remember: kids today are surrounded by "a sea of oral language and sound." This makes it easy for them to tune some of it in and some of it out. In other words, children have plenty of opportunity to practice passive hearing. What parents can help children develop is the skill of active listening.

Active listening occurs when the other aspects of listening---exposure to new words and sentence structures while evaluating all the rich non-word communication---come together.

Get started with free audio books and stories

While listening to audiobooks and stories can provide serious benefits for your child's language-related brain development, listening to audiobooks and stories also can provide a lot of serious fun. (Not to mention that audiobooks and stories have quieted many a backseat bicker-zone.) The enjoyment and thrill of immersing yourself in a good story never fades.

There are many free downloads available on the web. Here are some good places to start:

For the classics (with incredible illustrations, both on the website and in the published books), check out Candlelight Stories. They offer Three Little Pigs, Tom Thumb, A Chinese Fairytale, The Golden Goose and a 30-minute version of Snow White, with "a cast of characters, completely original orchestral music, songs, and fantastic sound effects." Candlelight Stories provides historical background on each story, a list of cast members, and a copy of the script.

Light Up Your Brain offers many stories in the 6-8 minute range. Beatrix Potter classics, such as The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies, and The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, are alongside modern stories such as Petie's Peanut Butter Pizza, by Joan Winifred (about a finicky boy), and The Fantabulous Cumulo-Nimbuli Pump, by Chuck Brown (about a cloud machine).

Storynory has a nice selection of stories, including a series aimed at young boys, Jack and the Pirate. Examples of other stories at Storynory are Christmas in Iceland and Big Sister's Clothes.

The Conscious Living Foundation offers a long list of free children's stories. The offerings include: Why the Sea is Salty; Elves and the Shoemaker; The Princess and the Pea; The Little Mermaid; Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp; and Prince Gigi and the Magic Ring.

With great listening experiences only a click away, it's never been easier or more convenient for parents to bring more of the magic, joy, and brain-developing power of stories into a child's life. With so many stories to choose from, children can pursue a variety of interests and listening experiences. And while they are having fun, they also are learning the very important skills of listening well.

Sources:

David Rose and Bridget Dalton, "How New Technologies are Changing the Relationship Between Literacy and Listening," Learning Through Listening.

Robert Godwin-Jones, "19^th Century German Stories," Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Foreign Languages.

"Rumpelstiltskin," Memory Alpha.

Diane E. Beals and Patton O. Tabors, "Using 'Rare' Words at Mealtimes Can Enlarge Children's Vocabulary," Washington University in St. Louis.

"Sound Stories: Free Audio from Candlelight Stories," Candlelight Stories.

"Free Audio Stories for Kids," Light Up Your Brain.

"Free Audio Stories for Kids: Original Stories Archive," Storynory.

"Free Audio Stories and Classics for Children," The Conscious Living Foundation.