Podcast / 1 February, 2022 / Ellie Thompson
My Baba’s Editor Ellie Thompson welcomes guests Pinky Laing, Head of Partnerships for Tonies UK and Emily Best, Knowledge and Research Manager at the National Literacy Trust to Parental Control to discuss the benefits of audiobooks for children.
This podcast episode explores how audiobooks offer a huge range of educational and wellbeing benefits as well research that shows how useful they are in motivating struggling or reluctant readers to engage in the world of literature.
Pinky and Emily team up to tell us about this month’s launch of the Tonies’ schools and nurseries education initiative, ‘Tonies for Teachers’ supporting teachers to help children learn through the power of audio, with research commissioned from the National Literacy Trust.
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on Spotify
With a background in event management and fashion in London, Pinky became involved with Tonies just as the pandemic unfolded in early 2020.
With celebrity-led campaigns for the NHS Key Workers (raising over 60k) and GOSH, her focus is now on highlighting the educational benefits of Tonies and audiobooks, working with schools and nurseries up and down the country to encourage children to love storytelling through the power of audio.
Tonies are scree-free, portable, soft yet robust audio players for children, aged 3+. Simply pop a hand-painted Tonie on top of the Toniebox to activate the sound, take it off for the audio to pause.
Built to withstand the inevitable bumps and tumbles from kids, the soft-padded Toniebox plays the songs and stories available in their ever-expanding library of kids’ classics. Discover a world of stories, music and educational content with over 70 titles to collect. There’s everything from Disney‘s infamous Lion King and Frozen to the history of Dinosaurs and Space, with plenty of lullabies and counting songs for the little ones too. Record your own stories, songs or messages using the Creative-Tonies, in conjunction with the Tonies’ app. Tonies bring the magic of stories to life, sparking little imaginations and encouraging imaginative active play.
Available at Tonies.com.
Emily Best oversees research activities around audiobooks, podcasts and all things to do with listening. Emily has a background in teacher development and bookselling for schools and has been at the National Literacy Trust for six years.
A charity dedicated to improving the reading, writing, speaking and listening skills of those who need it most, giving them the best possible chance of success in school, work and life. The National Literacy Trust runs Literacy Hubs and campaigns in communities where low levels of literacy and social mobility are seriously impacting people’s lives.
The National Literacy Trust support schools and early years settings to deliver outstanding literacy provision, and they’re busy campaigning to make literacy a priority for politicians, businesses and parents. Their research and analysis make the National Literacy Trust the leading authority on literacy, to help drive our interventions. Literacy is a vital element of action against poverty and our work changes life stories.
Visit www.literacytrust.org.uk to find out more, donate or sign up for a free email newsletter. You can also find the National Literacy Trust on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
Together, Tonies and the National Literacy Trust have created downloadable lesson plan content to help support teachers of Early Years children, available for free here. To redeem their unique discount code for 25% off a tonies® Starter Set, teachers should visit the Tonies Education page and fill in their details.
For further details on ‘Tonies for Teachers‘ – please click here.
Meet A Whole New World Of Audiobooks With Toniebox
Why Is Reading Your Child A Bedtime Story So Important? (Plus Top 5 Bedtime Story Books)
60 of The Best Children’s Books for National Storytelling Week