If you make reading a regular part of your routine, it’s easy to bring in these simple strategies into your everyday reading time. Getting the attention of your infant is simple because they feed on your interaction. If you notice when you’re speaking to your baby, they smile, they coo and they stare at you and any object that grabs their attention. So reading to them is quite simple and fun. Remember, a picture tells a thousand words so keep it simple.
Before you begin to read
Talk to them when you’re choosing their book. Let them know every step of what you’re doing. Sit them on your lap, relax and show them the book you will be reading. You want them to see the book as you see it, they’re reading too.
When you’re reading
A story becoming animated makes it more fun, point to the pictures and words while you’re reading and make funny sounds. If there is an apple on the page, show them the picture and the word so they can connect the two togethe if there’s a bird make tweeting sounds, you’re sure to get a chuckle or wide-eyed look from that.
Some good books for infants and young toddlers are those that are simple, also something that isn’t easily destroyed such as board books, plastic, and cloth. As your baby grows and becomes more hands-on and can begin to recognize people, things and places, ask them questions while you’re reading.
Here are a few exercises you can do with them:
– Pointing out the obvious: This is an apple, an apple is red.
– Seek and find: I see a butterfly, can you show me a butterfly?
– Making sounds: The cow goes moooooo.
All these exercises are making reading fun for your child and you’re helping them create a love for books for the rest of their lives.
Here are a few of my favorites
- Bear about Town– written by Stella Blackstone: this board book is full of rhyming text and provides discovery of different businesses and settings. The end of the book provides a simple map of all the places you and Bear have visited.
- Listen, Listen– written by Phillis Gershator: this book is a sound book, listening to all the sounds of the seasons with images to go along with them. The end of the book includes hide and seek spreads.
The benefits of early reading
The benefits of early reading are endless, reading will further your infant’s brain development, increase their attention span and ability to focus, enhance their ability to use longer sentences and larger vocabulary. Studies have shown that children who acquire early reading habits can pick up sound, music and new languages more efficiently and quickly than those who have not had this experience brought into their lives at an early age. A strong sense of bonding develops between you and your child and you begin to appreciate this time spent, as they grow older. Increase their imagination with pictorial books and give them a book in the car, while shopping, or anytime they are alone. Even if they cannot read, they are gaining interest in the images they are looking at, let them explore their books and as they get older and are able to talk they can make up their own stories through pictures.
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