When to start reading to your baby
In my role as a Youth Services Librarian, I am sometimes asked by new parents a question along the lines of, “When can I start reading to my baby?”.
The answer I give is simply, “now”. There is no such thing as too early to start reading to your baby.
No, they can’t understand the story. No, they can’t even understand the words. No, they probably can’t even focus on many of the pictures yet. They certainly can’t hold a book and turn pages, let alone interact with the subtle twists of plot.
What they can do is what babies are great at doing: learn, grow and develop. Like it or not our babies are learning from us all the time. They see us and hear us and when able, they mimic us.
Your child will not just wake up one morning and know how to open a book, turn pages, understand the pictures and read the words. When your child does learn to read independently it will be the latest step in a learning process that has been going on since birth. What I would like to suggest is this: if you want your child to grow up loving books, enjoying reading, and seeing it as a regular part of life, rather than just something they have to do for school, then expose them to books now. Read to them. Let them handle books. Let them look at books. Have books around your home. Let them see you reading.
Just like hearing us talk is a step on the road to learning language, hearing us read, looking at books, and seeing us handle books is a step on the road to literacy.
So if you have a baby (or a nephew, niece, grandchild, etc) and don’t read to them yet, now is the time to start.
(PS. Stay tuned for some pointers about what to look for in books for a new baby.)
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Over at Sycamore Stirrings, readers have submitted pictures of meals they have made that are presented in muffin tins and are inspired by children’s books.
As the parent of a toddler who loves books, but often seems to dislike mealtime, this seems like a great idea.
