In the previous two elements, I've used the example of reading a story to a three year old child. Remember that we covered element three, read slowly, and element four, read softly. Now I'd like to cover another factor that is important when reading to a three year old and that is element five. Read with energy and enthusiasm. For a moment, go back to the situation I asked you to visualize in the previous two elements. Imagine reading a story to this excitable and spontaneous three year old and now also imagine that she has a short span of attention.
You will need to read with lots of energy and enthusiasm to just keep persisting And interested. If you don't read with energy and enthusiasm, then there is a danger that you could become a talking head, someone who talks from their neck upwards without using their body. I now want you to imagine the speedo in your car. Instead of measuring speed, you're measuring energy and enthusiasm. imagined the white part is energy and enthusiasm. And the red part moves beyond energy and enthusiasm into anger.
So when reading to a three year old, your job is to get as much energy and enthusiasm into your speech without coming across as angry. The way to check this is to put your hand on your stomach and shout something in anger. Or imagine you're a sergeant in the army giving orders to a squad of men. Notice that as you shout, you will feel your stomach muscles tighten. This is because you're forcibly pumping more air through your vocal cords. Your body is acting as a bellows.
The increased volume and velocity of air coming out of your lungs through your voice box and out of your mouth is how you get the quality of energy and enthusiasm in your voice. Remember, there is enthusiasm in anger, but we don't want anger and enthusiasm. Although this sentence is not meant to be read angrily, I'm going to demonstrate reading this sentence with angry my voice. So it would sound more like on Christmas Eve many years ago I like quietly in my bed. Now that's gone into the red section of the speeder. Now that you've heard me read the extract from the Polar Express angrily, I would like you to do the same and to get really into this anger, get your voice into that red section of your speeder.
When you read the sentence, make sure that you hold your hand on your stomach so that you can feel what is going on in your body as you read the sentence Get into that feeling of anger. Notice how your stomach muscles tense. Notice how much more air is coming out of your mouth. When you're ready to record, press pause. Press play as soon as you're ready to continue. Of course, you can read anything with anger.
It doesn't particularly matter what you read. It does matter that you practice your reading so that you can learn to have conscious control of your reading voice. When you feel confident you might like to read and record yourself reading the whole extract in an angry voice. Now that you know what it feels like to get into the red section of your Speedo, reading with more energy and enthusiasm is now a matter of gently taking your foot off the pedal and allowing your voice to stay in the white section of that dial. reading more softly, more slowly and with energy and enthusiasm are three important factors when you are reading to a three year old. There are also significant factors when reading professionally.
In the next element, I'm going to look at Red Flag words and situations