Reading to Baby

Why Reading to Baby is Important?

Reading to baby is as important as reading to slightly older children. It is never too late to start reading to baby. In fact, you can start reading aloud to baby as early as possible after her birth. The earlier you start this, the sooner she develops love for reading and also helps in better learning. Reading to baby is an important form of stimulation and helps both of you to develop a special bond with each other.

While reading to baby, it is worth noting that your baby may not understand what you read to her in the initial days. However, this early reading paves way for her to talk better as she hears an increasing number of words. Thus, early reading can sharpen the baby's memory and vocabulary and, listening and communication skills. Moreover, reading is a fun approach to introduce various concepts such as shapes, colours, letters and numbers to your baby. Also when you read to her, the baby begins to understand about the world through his surroundings.

Tips on Reading to Baby

• Cuddle the baby close to you while you read to her.
• Babies have limited attention span and you can read to them about twice a day. Keep each session short for just about a few minutes when the baby is active and alert.
• Remember that your baby learns best through repetition. So do take that effort to re-read the same book over and over again to your baby.
• You need not follow the text word by word and page by page. Focus on what the baby likes most.
• Pause in between when reading to the baby and ask stimulating questions.
• Encourage your slightly older baby to touch and hold the books for herself.
• Make up stories to accompany the pictures in the books rather than just following the printed text.
• Avoid books with thin paper pages to minimise damage. Cloth, vinyl and board books are great choices just as books that make sounds.
• The attention span of babies increase as they grow older. So you will have to be persistent as you read to your baby.
• Allow your baby to handle the book by herself if she attempts to do so. Remember that this is her way of trying to become familiar with them. Keep her books at a place she can reach for them.
• Make reading as fun as possible so that your baby looks forward to it again.

Preferences on Reading to Baby

First Four Months

In the initial days, the baby focuses on the rhythm of your language and not the actual content of the book. Nursery rhymes are great for this age. When reading to baby, you do not have to read each page in order. Choose pages that you think are interesting. Point as you read, make modulations to your tone and display emotions and expression. Not only does this make the reading session lively for your child, it also helps her to grasp things faster. This way of reading also triggers her social and emotional development. Asking questions about what has been read enhances the child's thinking and language skills. During the early days, you may also have to provide the answers yourself. When you do this, provide the answers in a tone different from when you asked the questions. Although babies do not understand what pictures mean, they can focus on bright contrasting paterns, especially that of faces.

Four to Five Months

Actual interest for books begin to develop. Like her toys, the baby tries to explore books by putting them into her mouth and chewing them. Opt for books that have simple, bright and colourful pictures in different shapes. It is a good idea for these books can have repeating text and rhyming words. Point out pictures that you read to her. To avoid damage to the books, choose those made of vinyl or strong board books.

Six to Twelve Months

At this stage, the baby understands more about the pictures that she sees in his books. You may even find him prefering certain pictures and stories over others. You can also read to her about daily routines. Babies find it easier to handle board books. So it is a good idea to get such books and allow her to handle them herself. This may make her more interested in the reading process. Once your baby starts talking, ask her to repeat the words with you. Your baby will make her own sounds and also imitate your words. Your child may be more interested in asking questions about pictures than sitting through a whole story. Remember to be regular in your reading to baby. This is more important than reading for a long period of time.

One to Two Years

At this stage, the baby's vocabulary is increasing every month. Introduce new words from a variety of topics. You can get him books with pictures that are labelled on different topics such as animals, birds, alphabets, people, transport to name a few. As you read them to her, encourage the baby to point out to the picture that you tell her and name it. You can also help her get started on using two-word phrases in her speech.

The more you read to her, the more your child will read by herself at the right age. Also children read to from soon after birth knew twice as much words as their counterparts who were not read to.