5 Rules for Reading to Your Baby
It is NEVER too early to start reading to baby.
Parents frequently get told, “Just read to your baby! That will get them to talk.” While this advice comes from a good place, the complete lack of context is not helpful. Very similar to “Just talk to your baby! They will talk when they are ready” - it’s meant to be helpful, but actually doesn’t do much to help.
In order to get the most BANG FOR YOUR BUCK while reading to your baby, keep these 5 rules in mind:
Keep the book, and your words, SHORT. Yep. Pick a small board book that’s about 5-7 pages. These are some of my favorites! Point out ONE or TWO things on each page. Prompt your little one to turn the page and see what’s next. Repeat until the end and finish! Reading a book from start to finish is important in order to teach littles how to functionally engage with a book and keep their attention for the entire story, but if you can only do a few pages as you get going- that’s fine too. Work your way up!
Don’t always talk first. Especially with touch and feel books- let your little one explore the page! You don’t have to talk on each page, nor should you expect a response from your child on each page. A child who is looking, touching, and interested in a book is GREAT! Try not to interrupt this learning by prompting them to follow a direction or imitate you on every page. See what they do! Body movements are communication, too!
The type of book does matter. Littles are more likely to engage with books that are small, easy-to-hold, colorful, filled with flaps, cut-outs or sound buttons. Sure, you can read a chapter book out loud to your child, but are they going to piece together what’s happening? Will they learn the labels of items? What sounds animals make? Will they attempt to imitate you with those books? Probably not. Offering a selection of appropriate books is likely going to elicit all of these things instead. Plus, for babies, the goal is for them to hold and engage with the book, not just to sit and listen to story.
Reading before one is important. A lot of parents say “oh my child is too young/small to really interact with books.” Not true. Newborns can interact with books fairly appropriately (reaching out and touching crinkly books, looking at high contrast images on pages during tummy time). Building that foundation of literacy in the first year is really important. If your little one hasn’t been exposed to books or isn’t showing an interest by 6 months, it’s time to ramp it up! Get creative! Offer books that look like toys, leave books in baskets around the house, read books that involve sounds and singing. The more a child is around books, the more likely they are to start to like them an interact with them.
Read every day. Every single day. Some books take 30 seconds to read! That’s it! And your little one will likely want to read it again, and again, and again (until you lose your mind), and all of those book repetitions count as ADDITIONAL BOOKS READ! If you make it part of your routine, it’ll stick. And it’ll teach your baby that reading is something people do all the time.
It truly is as simple as reading age-appropriate books to your child.
Remember this:
The largest-ever international study of reading found that the single most important predictor of academic success is the amount of time children spend reading books, more important even than economic or social status. And one of the few predictors of high achievement in math and science is the amount of time children devote to pleasure reading.”
― Nancie Atwell, The Reading Zone: How to Help Kids Become Skilled, Passionate, Habitual, Critical Readers
Start reading and keep reading!
If you want to know all there is to know about baby + toddler milestones and how to help your little one meet them…
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