When Should You Start Reading to Your Baby?

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As a new parent, you’ve likely heard many times how important reading is to your baby. And maybe you’ve also tried reading to your little one once or twice, only to have them wriggle away in seconds! 

You might wonder if there’s a right age to start reading to your baby. Should you wait until they can sit up and focus on the pictures? Or perhaps when they begin showing an interest in the books themselves?

There’s actually a straightforward answer to this question, backed by multiple studies! Once you understand when and how to read to your little one, building the habit of reading to your baby will become a whole lot easier. 

So let’s take a look at when you should start reading to your baby, why it’s so important for their speech development, and how to pick baby books that make reading fun!

The Best Time to Start Reading to Baby

It’s never too early to start! You can start reading to your baby right from birth. In fact, you can start as early as when you’re pregnant.

Reading to your newborn might feel silly, and probably “too early,” but babies are constantly absorbing everything around them. Your newborn may not understand the meaning of your words, but they’ll still benefit both developmentally and emotionally from hearing those. 

Reading to your baby from day one helps you strengthen your bond with them through snuggles and shared sensory experience. Your baby loves the rhythm of your voice, and the warmth of your tone as you read to them. 

Around 3-4 months, when babies begin to intentionally reach for objects, they will love interacting with board books around them. It’s also when their vision and core strength improves so they can watch your face (and expressions) when reading. 

If you didn’t start from day one, don’t worry! It’s never too late to begin as well. Whether your baby is just a few days old or already sitting up, reading to them is a wonderful opportunity to build their speech and language skills (and help them say their first words).

If you’re wondering what are the best books to read to a baby, check out our top 10 books for babies here!

What Does Reading with Babies Look Like?

Reading might seem like a quick bedtime activity, but it’s one of the most powerful ways to support your baby’s overall development. There are so many benefits of reading to your baby.

Reading is an amazing opportunity to bond with your little one. Studies show that shared reading during early years is associated with stronger emotional connection between parent and child, which in turn supports a calmer, more positive impact on your relationship with your little one as they grow. (1)

Reading to your baby offers an enriching sensory experience. They listen to your voice, look at the pictures in the book, touch the pages, and even try to chew on them. (By the way- trying to eat the book is totally normal! Try to have a teether nearby that they can munch on instead.) This stimulates various senses, which boosts brain growth by maximizing neural connections.

When your little one interacts with books, they are learning joint attention, and building engagement and focus. Research finds that reading to children as infants and toddlers has a lasting effect on their language, literacy and early reading skills. (2) 

All reading is helpful, but make sure to check out this blog post about 5 best ways to read to your baby to maximize the benefits! 

Reading Helps Support Speech Milestones

The connection between reading lots of books and boosting speech and language skills is undeniable. Babies are more likely to make word-like sounds when being read to as compared to simply playing. (3) 

From the moment your baby is born, they start tuning into sounds and look to communicate. Reading exposes them to a rich variety of words, which they’ll later understand, and eventually try to imitate. The more words they hear, the faster their brain will connect sounds to meaning. 

Research shows that little ones who are read to daily likely hear a million more words by age three than those who aren’t. (4) Another study also proves that reading to babies under a year old leads to larger, more complex vocabularies when they go to school. (5)

Best Baby Books

To make reading a fun part of your routine, it’s important to pick books depending on your baby’s age and skill level. We break down all the best books for babies and toddlers by age in this blog post! 

Best Books for Newborns

Start with high-contrast black and white books. Add crinkle cloth books around 2-3 months to motivate reaching. Hold the books nearby or hang overhead in the play gym!

Best Books for 3 Month Olds

Between 3-6 months, introduce books with flaps and surprises to keep your baby engaged. Also bring in baby board books with touch and feel elements, and real-life photos. 

Best Books for 6 Month Olds

Pick short and sweet books with smaller pages that babies can hold and interact with. Your little one might want to turn the pages, so let’s make it easy for them!

Best Books for 9 Month Olds

Pick books with fun movements, gestures, and fill-in-the-blanks to prompt lots of imitation, as first words are just round the corner! Sound books are my favorite for this age!

So, if you’re still not sure what’s the best time to start reading to your baby, it’s right now! Whether your baby is five days old or five months old, you should start today! Reading to your baby is one of the best ways to promote speech and language development. 

But it’s not just books! There’s a lot more you can do to support your baby’s development through play. Our Playbooks have hundreds of speech and language (plus gross motor and fine motor) activities that help your baby meet all of their milestones from birth to age 3. 

Check out Our Best-Selling Playbooks!

Sources:

1. Jimenez, M. E., Mendelsohn, A. L., Lin, Y., Shelton, P., & Reichman, N. (2019). Early shared reading is associated with less harsh parenting. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 40(7), 530–537.
2. Karrass, J., & Braungart-Rieker, J. M. (2005). Effects of shared parent-infant book reading on early language acquisition. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 26(2), 133–148. 
3. Cates, C. B., Weisleder, A., Dreyer, B. P., & Mendelsohn, A. L. (2016). Encouraging parent-child book sharing: Potential additive benefits of literacy promotion in primary care. Journal of Pediatrics, 179, 221–227.e1. 
4. Logan, J. A. R., Justice, L. M., Yumuş, M., & Chaparro-Moreno, L. J. (2019). When children are not read to at home: The million-word gap. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, 40(5), 383–386. 
5. Debaryshe, B. D. (1993). Joint picture-book reading correlates of early literacy development in a sample of low-income families. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 14(3), 453–471.