Reading to your child encourages speech and language development and is a great way for you to interact and communicate with your baby early on. Studies also show that the earlier babies are exposed to reading, the more they will enjoy reading and learning and the better they will perform in school.
Here are four important tips for getting started with reading to your little one:
1. How to keep their attention. At the beginning, keep it short. Infants have short attention spans, so read for 10 to 15 minutes, once or twice a day.
2. What to read: For the first few months, read what you enjoy. After that, use board or fabric books so your baby can explore the book with you. “It’s okay if they eat the pages,” says Dr. Remer-Altman. By four or five months, babies like to look at images they are familiar with–other babies, animals, basic objects.
3. The importance of repetition: If you read the same story over and over, your baby will learn at what points he should laugh and get excited by the changes in your voice.
4. Change it up as baby evolves: By six to nine months, your baby will start to copy you and turn multiple pages at a time. They will also be able to engage in flip up books. By about one year, your child will be able to flip single pages in a book. They will also stop using the pages as a teether, so it’s a great time to start introducing paper books.
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See: Our favourite places to buy kids’ books in Toronto.
