The educator intentionally encourages the child (or children) to actively engage and take part in ​‘reading’ a book. Over time, the educator increasingly passes responsibility of who ​‘reads’ or facilitates discussion about the book to the child.

Interactive reading can have a positive impact on some aspects of children’s early literacy. It can also support children’s communication and language.

Interactive reading is more likely to be effective when educators:

• focus on the quality of interactions with children, as this is likely to matter more than the type of book they use
• provide opportunities for repetition, including repeated reading of the same book
• deliver Interactive reading with smaller groups of children
• name and label the features and characteristics of books and print
• support parents to use this approach for reading with children at home.

Educators should deliver Interactive reading as one part of a rich, balanced early literacy curriculum. We recommend this for two reasons:

• the impact of this approach varied in some studies. Some studies found no impact, or only on specific literacy outcomes.
• there is strong evidence that it can support children’s early communication and language development. Find out more here.

Educators can use print or e‑books to develop children’s story comprehension, as they are equally effective. Educators may wish to use multimedia e‑books Electronic books that include animation, music or sound effects. as part of their phonics teaching. Some evidence indicates these may be more effective than print books.

However, the quality of educators’ interactions with children is likely to be more important than the book’s format. This means educators can focus on having rich discussions with children and careful scaffoldingProviding temporary support for a child during a task, to adjust the level of challenge., for example. Educators might also encourage children to ​‘act’ out, retell or reimagine a familiar story.

Practices educators can use during these interactions include:

• Naming and labelling: providing a name or label for an object, concept, action or skill. For example, labelling the features of a book or the text (such as the title, pages or individual sentences and words)
• Repetition: intentionally repeating and reinforcing a taught concept in different contexts, over time. For example, re-reading the same book on several occasions to deepen children’s understanding of the story
• Thinking aloud: verbally expressing thought processes to make them explicit. For example, the educator might do this to model early reading strategies, ​‘I think I have seen this word before, in the title of the story. Let me check. I was right! It is the same word, ​“tiger”’
• Questioning: prompting children to think, respond or join in. For example, the educator uses different types of questions to prompt different skills. This can include predicting (such as ​‘What do you think will happen next?’ or clarifying (such as ​‘Why did eating a leaf make the caterpillar feel better?’)
• Making links: enabling children to make connections between thoughts, actions, knowledge or experiences. For example, while reading a story, the educator says ​‘This boy has just become a big brother. I know some other children who are big brothers, too’ to encourage discussion
• Explaining and showing: providing extra information to support children’s understanding. For example, the educator uses a familiar word to explain the meaning of a new word, such as, ​‘Feeling cheerful is like feeling happy’
• Recalling: using language to describe a previous event or experience. For example, the educator recalls the main plot points from the story or encourages the children to do so.