Reading is one of the essential skills your kids need to learn as they grow. Children are more likely to learn this skill faster when they are read to and allowed to read out loud also. As a parent, you have a significant role to play in teaching your kids how to read. Although you can do this either by reading out storybooks or academic books to them, your kids may find storybooks to be more appealing. Reading books to your children strengthens your relationship with them, spurs their imaginations, and improves cognitive abilities, listening skills, and understanding of their environment.

Even though parents play a significant role here, several parents cannot effectively play their part due to hectic and tight work schedules, frequent travels, long-distance parenting, etc. However, technology has made this a lot easier through the invention of audiobooks and recordable storybooks for kids. With these, you can easily record your voice reading a book for your children, allowing them to listen whenever they want to. Your kids get to hear storybooks or academic texts in your voice even when you aren’t available.

In this article, we have explored everything you need to know about voice pre-recorded books for kids. If you are a workaholic mom or dad searching for a solution, then this is definitely for you.

Factors to Consider When Creating a Voice Pre-Recorded Book for Your Kids

Before creating or buying audiobooks or pre-recorded books for your kids, there are certain factors you need to put into consideration. These factors influence the kinds of books you purchase or record and the length of your recording.

• Age

This is the first and most crucial factor you must consider as it determines the kind of book you can pre-record for your kids. Children of different age groups have different comprehension levels and requirements. Whether it’s a storybook or an academic book, ensure that you choose a suitable book recommended for your kid’s age range. For example, you wouldn’t read to or teach to a 3-year-old, what you should to an 8-year-old and vice versa. Your 3-year-old is likely just beginning to identify alphabets and imitate reading actions, while your 8-year-old should be able to read almost independently, write, and spell better too.

• Purpose

This is almost as important as the age of your kid. Do you want to read a story to your kid or teach him/her some alphabets, how to identify objects or sciences? The purpose of your recording should be identified and drawn out. The way you would record a recordable storybook, or audio storybook would be way different from the manner with which you would record a purely academic book. A storybook would require fewer pauses, explanations, and repetition.

• Volume 

The volume of the book you intend to use has to tally with your kid’s attention span. A 4-year-old is less likely to have a long attention span when listening to any teaching recording than a 7-year-old. However, a short and fun voice pre-recorded storybook can sustain the interest and attention of your 4-year old child for the period it runs. Your kid’s age and purpose of your voice pre-recorded book largely influence the volume you can record. This, in turn, determines how effectively your recording would achieve its goal.

Types of Voice Pre-Recorded Books

Voice pre-recorded books for kids come in different forms and give you a wide range to choose from. Different companies and brands manufacture these voice books to meet parents’ demands across every sphere of life. We have listed a few types that we have found helpful.

• Voice recordable storybooks 

These storybooks come with recorders that allow you to record your voice so that your child can listen to your voice while flipping through the pages. With these books, you can create a personalized experience for your kids. Usually, each page of the book comes with a record button that allows you to tell and record your story creatively. The best part is, the text does not bound you in the pages. You can take pauses, ask questions, make silly noises, and even speak a different language.

Your kids can repeatedly listen by pressing play and opening the pages in a well-lit area. There are different exciting and appealing recordable storybooks that your kids might like; all you need do is purchase them from e-commerce stores. You can also create these recordable storybooks if you want to.

• Audiobooks

Although there are free and paid audiobooks of stories, sciences, mathematics class, history, etc., you can also record your audiobooks for your kids. These audiobooks can cover any topic of your choice and can be accessed anytime. If you would like to register your audiobooks, you would need a microphone, your choice of book, laptop, or even your phone. However, since most phones and laptops come with in-built microphones, you may not need one.

Most phones come with recorders, and this can be used to record your audiobook. If you do not have one, you can easily download apps such as Voice memos, Audacity, GarageBand, etc. With these apps, you can easily record and save your audiobook. This can also be carried out on a computer through the sound recorder. Once you have successfully recorded your audiobooks, they can be listened to using a little children-friendly boom box connected to an SD card. With this, your child can enjoy reading, learn more, and improve his/her cognitive abilities.

However, if you do not buy into this idea, you can also get educative audiobooks from several sources online. Most are paid, while a few others are free and readily available.

Importance of Voice Pre-Recorded Books

The importance of voice pre-recorded books for kids cannot be overemphasized. With many parents struggling with tight work schedules and juggling two or more jobs to make ends meet, there’s less time to spend with the kids. However, this tool has made parenting much easier for parents. Here are some ways:

• Saves you time

For workaholic parents, making use of audiobooks, recordable storybooks, and other forms of pre-recorded voice books is a perfect way to save time while meeting your kid’s needs. Recordings can be made during your leisure time so that your kids can listen to your voice, reading their favorite storybook, or teaching them something relevant. The best part is some of these voice pre-recordings also come with video recordings. So, your child gets to see and hear you often while also learning a great deal from you, even in your absence.

• Improves parent-children relationship

A child is more likely to listen to an audiobook or recordable storybook with his/her parent’s voice than a foreign voice. Using your voice to record a storybook or academic book gives life to that story or teaching and makes it more appealing to your kids.

Reading out books to your kids and doing it with them gives you a chance to build a long-lasting bond through intriguing adventures and experiences. Although you may not achieve this in person, voice pre-recorded books can help you do so effortlessly. These tools help foster your relationship with your kids.

• Improves your child’s imaginative power

Reading books to your children stimulates and broadens their imagination. Since voice pre-recorded books do the same in your voice, they achieve the same result. As you read through the pages of the book with your kids, they can picture and experience new events and situations. With this, your kids can easily create their own stories through their imaginations.

• Boosts listening skills, language development, and comprehension

Listening to your pre-recorded voice book helps your children adapt to strong language and improves their listening skills. This means they can learn proper grammar, the correct word usage, spellings, and pronunciations without your physical presence.

Your kids can improve their vocabulary and learn how to structure sentences properly, which eventually translates into good writing skills. Your kids become not only fluent speakers but also fluent writers too. This teaches your children how to solve problems, make good predictions, and analyze information better.

Also, you inculcate a habit of reading into your kids, and with time extend their attention span as they grow older.

With voice pre-recorded books, you can achieve the same results you would when reading to them physically.

Conclusion

Voice pre-recorded books come in handy, especially when you need some quiet piece or would like to catch up on some work. They save you time, boost your kid’s learning abilities while also improving the parent-child bond. Technology has made life a lot easier and taken off a lot of burden from our shoulders.

However, regardless of how handy these voice pre-recorded books are, they shouldn’t entirely replace the time you spend with your kids. Your physical presence and time spent with your children is way more important and should be treated as such. It is easier and faster to build a stronger bond, monitor, and improve learning and growth physically than through voice pre-recorded books.

Note that this doesn’t downplay the role voice pre-recorded books play but encourages a physical connection with your kids.