Read me a story!

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The road to reading starts in infancy, when children acquire a love of words.

The road to reading starts in infancy, when children acquire a love of words, an excitement about storytelling and the wonder of sharing life's experience with loved ones using words. Family members can nurture the joy of reading through activities that build these skills and interests. Here are some tips for making reading a central part of your child's life:

 Talk to your baby. Use your face and voice to tell him all about the world and himself. Pick a time when he is quiet and alert, and just start talking. He knows the sound and rhythm of your voice, having listened to it before birth. Now help him connect those sounds to interaction with the world.
 Echo what your baby says. Coo back to him when he makes those lovely little sounds. He's learning that sounds can make the world react - and that words have power.
 Become a news commentator. Narrate your day to your baby, what you are doing with him, and even what you're reading in his presence. You're making connections between words and events; you're helping him learn the elements of a story.
 Label things. As you go about your daily care of your baby, give a name to him, his body parts, his clothes and equipment. Although the connections will take weeks to months, you're building the basics of language and literacy.
 Look at picture books together. Beginning when your baby is about 6 months old, introduce books as fun and exciting. Accept your child's short attention span; each brief interaction is fostering a love of books.
 Don't worry about your child eating books. Young infants learn about their world using their hands and mouth. Use heavy cardboard books as your child's first books. If he chews on them a bit, don't worry. He'll soon work out that there are other more interesting things to do with them, like look at the pictures. That's the first step towards reading.
 Look, point, then name. Young infants and toddlers start out their literary lives by first learning to turn the pages, then looking at the pictures generally, then looking at pictures as the images are named, then pointing at the named pictures, and finally naming the pictures themselves. Where is your child on that road? Can you prompt him to do the next step? You can't push him if he isn't ready but you will be able to encourage him to move ahead if he is ready.
 Pack a book. Tuck a storybook or two in the nappy bag and in the car for the older infant and toddler. The habit of filling in life's spaces with books and always having them handy helps a child see them as a normal part of life.
 Learn rhymes and songs. Children experiment with the sounds of language with rhyme, which builds their interest in words and sounds. Rhymes with gestures help to link actions with the action words. Poetry for children also builds this awareness and love of language.
 Give books. Give every child you know a book for every occasion. And then look at it together. Keep that home library in a special but accessible place.

 Tell bedtime stories. Make stories, both read and told, part of the bedtime ritual from infancy onwards. Never take away the bedtime story as a punishment; it should be sacred.
Don't let the sun set on a book-free day. Make books a part of every day with your child. Don't let a day go by without reading a book, a poem or a story.

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Development

Article Tags:

reading

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language

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books