Have you ever worked with a family who tells you that bedtime takes forever? I have. Many parents tell me the same thing. Their evenings sound something like this. “Can I have another story?” “I’m thirsty!” “I need the potty again!” And somehow the child needed none of these things 10 minutes earlier. By the time the child falls asleep the parent often feels ready for bed too.

As sleep consultants we usually start with the basics. We help parents keep the room cool and dark and we help them build a calm routine. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a nightly routine that it named Brush, Book, Bed. Every night the child brushes their teeth, reads a book with a parent and goes to bed at the same time. The academy explains that a predictable routine helps a child understand what comes next. It adds that a routine may ease the stress that some families feel at bedtime.

The middle step is the book and this is where an interactive story can do a lot more. In many homes the parent reads and the child listens. In an interactive story the child helps tell the story. Little Red Riding Hood stops on the path and asks the child what she should say to the wolf. The three little pigs ask the child how to build a house that the wolf can’t destroy. And sometimes the child decides that the wolf only wants a snack and a friend.

Research gives us 4 good reasons to suggest this kind of story to families.

4 things an interactive story gives a child

A happy ending can teach a child to tell the truth

Many of us heard the story of Pinocchio as children. Parents still read it to teach children not to lie. But does the story work?

Researchers from the University of Toronto and McGill University in Canada tested the question with 268 children between 3 and 7 years old. A researcher asked each child not to peek at a toy and then left the room. Most of the children peeked. When the researcher returned she read the child a story and asked whether they had peeked.

The story of Pinocchio didn’t help the children tell the truth. The old tale of young George Washington did help. In that tale George admits to his father that he damaged the cherry tree and his father praises him for telling the truth. Children who heard the George Washington story were about three times more likely to tell the truth than children who heard a story with no lesson about lying. Then the researchers changed the ending so that George lies and his father shows his disappointment. With that ending the story no longer helped. So the praise at the end helped the children and the punishment did not help them.

Parents can use this finding every night. In an interactive story the parent decides what happens after each choice the hero makes. When the pig tells his mother the truth about the window he broke his mother can give him a big hug. When the hero shares his dinner with the hungry wolf the two can become friends. The child hears every night that good choices lead to good things.

Interactive reading can bring parent and child closer

A parent asks “Why do you think the wolf is sad?” and the child says “Nobody plays with him.” That answer tells the parent a lot about what the child feels.

Researchers from University College London and Nottingham Trent University in England reviewed 46 studies of dialogic reading. Dialogic reading is the name researchers give to reading where the parent asks questions and the child does most of the talking. In other words it’s interactive storytelling with a book. The review found that this kind of reading helps children under 5 with many language and reading skills. It found some signs that interactive reading helps the whole family too. Parents and children formed a stronger bond. Parents gained confidence and felt less stress. The authors add that researchers still need to run more careful studies.

The American Academy of Pediatrics gives the same message. It asks pediatricians to tell every parent that reading aloud with young children can strengthen the parent-child relationship.

So the bedtime story becomes calm time together and a chance for the parent to hear what the child thinks.

A story every night can make the bedtime routine easier

Jodi Mindell is a sleep researcher at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in the United States. She led a study of more than 10,000 mothers in 14 countries. Children who had a bedtime routine every night slept on average more than 1h longer per night than children who never had a routine. The more nights a week a family followed the routine the better the child slept. Children who started a routine at a younger age tended to sleep better too. This kind of study shows a link and can’t prove that the routine caused the better sleep.

An extra hour of sleep each night means a lot to a tired family. An interactive story gives the child a part of the routine to enjoy every night. A child who loves the story has a good reason to come to bed. And that makes it easier for the parent to keep the same routine on busy nights. The American Academy of Pediatrics adds a practical tip. It says that moving bedtime even 15 to 20 mins earlier can help the whole family rest better.

Talking about the story helps a child learn new words

A two-year-old points at the page and says “Wolf!” The parent smiles and says “Yes! A big hungry wolf. What is the hungry wolf doing?” Now the child has heard new words and has a reason to use them.

Researchers from the University of Oxford and the University of Reading in England combined the results of 19 studies with 2,594 children between 1 and 6 years old. In each study trainers taught some parents how to share books with their child and other parents had no training. The children whose parents took the training spoke better than the other children. The difference in the children’s speech was modest but clear. The parents themselves became much better at sharing books. Programs that gave families very little practice had almost no effect on the children. So the benefit comes from regular practice and a story every night gives the child that practice.

The answer that the parent gave to “Wolf!” follows a pattern that Grover Whitehurst and his team at Stony Brook University in New York named PEER. The parent prompts the child to say something about the story, evaluates the answer, expands the answer with new words and then repeats the prompt so the child can use the new words.

Whitehurst uses five kinds of prompts that spell CROWD. Completion prompts let the child finish a line (The wolf huffed and puffed and…). Recall prompts ask the child what happened earlier in the story. Open-ended prompts ask the child to talk about the page. Wh- prompts ask what, where, who and why. Distancing prompts link the story to the child’s own life (Have you ever built a tower with blocks?). Whitehurst suggests saving recall and distancing prompts mostly for four- and five-year-olds. Younger children find these two kinds harder.

6 ways to help parents start interactive stories

These ideas suit toddlers and preschoolers who can answer a question with a word, a nod or a point of the finger. A baby only needs a calm voice and a book.

Use a book the child already knows

Whitehurst’s method starts after the child has heard the book at least once. When the child already knows what happens to the three pigs the child can answer with confidence. Two or three questions are enough at bedtime.

Mix questions with plain reading

Whitehurst tells parents to mix prompts with plain reading, to try different things from night to night and to follow the child’s interest. A question on every page can make story time feel like a quiz.

Let the child change the story

Maybe the wolf becomes a friend. Maybe the three bears invite Goldilocks to stay for dinner. The parent can accept these changes and add new words to them. When the child decides that the pigs build their house with pancakes the parent can answer “Yes! Soft warm pancakes with honey on top.” Now the story belongs to both of them.

Let good choices end well

When a character tells the truth or helps a friend the parent can make something good happen next. The University of Toronto study found that praise after the truth helped children tell the truth and a punishment after a lie didn’t help them.

End the story in a quiet way

Keep the questions for the start of the story. Toward the end the parent can ask fewer questions and speak more softly and more slowly. Try the same sleepy closing line every night. For example “And everyone in the forest closed their eyes.” If the story still makes a child too lively the parent can move interactive stories to the daytime and read a calm book at bedtime.

Use a toy or a drawing

A stuffed animal makes a great wolf and a drawing can show the pigs’ house. Props like these help a young child follow the story. A toy or two is enough at bedtime. If the child is under 12m old the parent should remove the stuffed animal from the crib when the story ends.

Why sleep consultants should recommend interactive stories

So the next time a parent tells you that bedtime takes forever you can offer more than a cool room and dim lights. Many families already read a story at bedtime. An interactive story uses that same time to build the child’s language, the bond between parent and child and a steady routine. It costs nothing and needs no new books.

Please be clear with parents about what an interactive story can’t do. It won’t stop night wakings and it won’t fix short naps. It’s a part of a good bedtime routine.

How to become a sleep consultant

Do you enjoy helping families with problems like these? Sleep consultants work closely with parents on night wakings, nap schedules and bedtime routines. The training program at the International Institute of Infant Sleep teaches you how to assess a child’s sleep, how to write a sleep plan for each family and how to support parents as they follow the plan. If this work sounds right for you please see our programs and the dates of our next semester.

References

Dowdall, N., Melendez-Torres, G. J., Murray, L., Gardner, F., Hartford, L., & Cooper, P. J. (2020). Shared picture book reading interventions for child language development: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Child Development, 91(2), 383–399. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13225

High, P. C., Klass, P., & Council on Early Childhood. (2014). Literacy promotion: An essential component of primary care pediatric practice. Pediatrics, 134(2), 404–409. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2014-1384

Lee, K., Talwar, V., McCarthy, A., Ross, I., Evans, A., & Arruda, C. (2014). Can classic moral stories promote honesty in children? Psychological Science, 25(8), 1630–1636. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797614536401

Mindell, J. A., Li, A. M., Sadeh, A., Kwon, R., & Goh, D. Y. T. (2015). Bedtime routines for young children: A dose-dependent association with sleep outcomes. Sleep, 38(5), 717–722. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4402657

Mindell, J. A., Telofski, L. S., Wiegand, B., & Kurtz, E. S. (2009). A nightly bedtime routine: Impact on sleep in young children and maternal mood. Sleep, 32(5), 599–606. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2675894/

Pillinger, C., & Vardy, E. J. (2022). The story so far: A systematic review of the dialogic reading literature. Journal of Research in Reading, 45(4), 533–548. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9817.12407

Whitehurst, G. J. (n.d.). Dialogic reading: An effective way to read aloud with young children. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/topics/early-literacy-development/articles/dialogic-reading-effective-way-read-aloud-young-children