Reading & Talking

READING!🍋🍋🍋
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I think a lot of parents understand the importance of books and reading with their children. There is so much research to support the benefits of early childhood reading (check out today’s stories!). I think many parents want to know WHEN, HOW, and WHAT books?? 📚
Reading WITH your child can be an amazing opportunity for language learning. When you read with your baby/child you are not just teaching them to read, you are teaching them the building blocks of language! The book serves as the tool to get your child talking. Your child will have the opportunity to learn speech sounds, new vocabulary, word endings & types, how to ask and answer questions, and social language. On top of this they will be exposed to early and pre-literacy skills, think: opening a book, turning pages, print awareness. 📚
So WHEN do we start? “My 3 month old obviously can’t read!” No, they cannot- but they can look! 👀 You cannot start book-sharing too early. Start from day 1! Babies will look at simple images very early on. Black and white contrasting visuals are a good place to start. Book-sharing will look very different as a child develops.
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HOW?
. 🍋In the beginning look at the pictures. Label what you see, point. 👆🏻 Early on it’s not so much about reading the words on the page, the priority is the discussion about the book. .
🍋As they grow, help them to turn the pages. Help them to point to the pictures. Describe what the animals or characters are doing. Make all the silly animal noises 🤪 .
🍋Eventually ask them to point to familiar pictures. Animals, objects, characters, actions, etc.
🍋As their language becomes more complex ask them about the pictures and the story... What is that? Where are they? What are they doing?
As they understand more and their attention span grows, the reading part will come more into play- but don’t stop talking about the book!!