Read-aloud stories on YouTube: when video is enough

Among kids' videos, a read-aloud story is one of the better things you'll find on YouTube: your child hears connected storytelling, full sentences and words that rarely come up in everyday talk — and the pace of speech is slower than in fast-cut cartoons. As background sound while they build or draw, it works much like a story on the radio.

Compared with reading aloud in person, though, a video is missing the other half: it won't ask, won't wait and won't turn back a page. The illustrations also arrive ready-made on the screen, so imagination works less than when a child builds the pictures from a voice alone. And for the youngest the difference is huge — according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children under two learn almost nothing from a screen on their own; they learn from interacting with a real person. Watching a read-aloud story together and chatting about it is something entirely different from leaving a child alone with a tablet.

Video isn't the enemy — it just belongs to a different part of the day than bedtime. Typical moments when a read-aloud story is a good choice:

Reading together isn't just about getting a story into a child's head. What builds language the most is so-called dialogic reading: the parent asks questions (“What do you think the wolf will do?”), points at the pictures, waits for an answer and builds on it. That's exactly the part a video can't do — it carries on whether or not your child understood, and it never asks a thing. That's why reading campaigns such as National Simultaneous Storytime are built around a book read aloud to children, not around watching.

Then there's the simple screen-time limit: the World Health Organization recommends no screen time under two and no more than an hour a day between two and four. A read-aloud story counts exactly like any other video — “it's basically a book” changes nothing about screen time. For ideas on what to read with your child instead, see our article on children's books by age.

The first problem is light. The screen shines right into your child's eyes at the very moment their body should start releasing melatonin — falling asleep is delayed and sleep is lighter. That's why the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screens in the hour before bed and no screens in the child's bedroom.

The second problem is autoplay. One story ends and the player offers the next one by itself — the end of the evening turns into bargaining for “just one more”. A bedtime routine works precisely because its order and its ending are the same every time: bath, pyjamas, story, lights out. A video with an endless queue of episodes is the exact opposite.

The third difference is a subtle one: with a video, your child keeps their eyes open and follows the picture; with a voice, they can close them. Falling asleep while listening is a physically different activity from watching — which is why an audio story or reading aloud works, and video doesn't. For how to put the whole bedtime routine together step by step, see our article on bedtime stories.

The habit of falling asleep to a video can't be broken overnight. These steps will move it to listening and books within a few weeks:

The simplest replacement for an evening video is ABC Kids listen — the free ABC audio service for children up to about five, with Story Time and music, which you can play in the ABC listen app or on DAB+ digital radio, with no picture at all. Add audiobooks of classic stories and your own family treasure: record Nan or Pop on your phone reading a favourite story — your child will recognise the voice, and the recording stays.

You can bring a personal touch to listening in another way, too: a book from Hero of the Book, in which your child is the hero, can come with an audiobook — the whole story narrated by a professional narrator for A$4.99, so the evening listen is about them. And if you'd rather read yourself and want stories you can start with tonight, have a look at our article on stories for children to read.