It’s never too early to start reading with your child. Early exposure to books can help with later speech and language development and foster a love for reading later in life. Although your baby may not understand the content of the books, they will enjoy listening to your voice, watching your facial movements and looking at the pictures in the books. Reading can also be a lovely time to cuddle and bond with your baby or a part of your wind-down routine at bedtime. Research shows that having parents who are frequent readers directly links to children being frequent readers; so taking a break to read a book once in a while can actually help your child!
Tips for reading with your little one:
Start with short bursts when your little one is calm and happy, no need to force them to finish listening to the book if they are not enjoying it. Try again another time.
Sit in a way that you can be face to face with your baby. This helps them to see the movements of your mouth to learn more about sounds.
Choose books with high contrast pictures for babies such as black and white. Books with flaps or pop-up images can also peak interest.
Incorporate songs or different voices into reading time to peak your little ones interest.
Display books in your baby’s room so that they can become interested and curious about them as they are doing things in their room.
Principal Speech Pathologist
