Ever wonder why your child wants the same story to be read every night? Knowledge is not given – it is built – and children need to build on what is familiar to them. Repetition of stories is important because:

· Children love the familiar and thrive on consistency. This gives them a sense of security.

· Familiar stories are a comfort to children. They know what to expect.

· Children love the control they have in knowing what a book has written in it.

· Since they cannot read the story, young children enjoy memorizing it and to do that, they need to hear the same story over and over again. Don’t ever think of skipping a paragraph or a page – they will point it out immediately!

· Children thrive on repetition. Telling the same stories assists in language development – children remember chunks of information – phrases, whole sentences, whole paragraphs and even the whole book can be cited!

DR GROSSI’S TIP: Tell the familiar loved story on condition that you can introduce another to ensure balance between the known and the unknown and to extend knowledge.