Thursday 6 October 2011

The best time to start reading to your baby

From my reading of articles and books on the importance of reading books to your baby, there is one common advice from all the sources... to start reading to your baby as early as possible. Well, I am no "tiger mum" but I am a booklover myself and I wanted to teach the value and importance of reading to my baby. So, I started reading to my baby boy from when he was only a few months old. 

In the beginning, I mainly showed him picture books and just talked about the picture to him. For instance, if it was an apple I was showing him, I would talk to him like this, "This is called an apple. This apple is red but there are green apples too. Apples are yummy!" It felt a bit strange talking to a baby who just stares at you but trust me, it became so much more fun more I read to him. I think Baby Einstein Touch and Feel books are great. I also bought simple picture books from the supermarkets. I tried to involve as much of his five senses as possible when I read to him. So, I would read the book aloud, encourage him to feel the pages and eventually he decided to taste many of the books too! I noticed that more I read to him, it became enjoyable for both of us. He would smile when I picked out his favourite book and squealed in excitement as I started reading it to him. 

When he was able to sit up (about 6 months old), I bought him "Superslide First Words" published by Hinkler Books (A slide pieces in the book help babies to identify different pictures with their correct names) and lift-the-flap books such as "Where is Spot?" My baby found these books fascinating and I remember reading them to him over and over again.

He is now 20 months old and reading has become one of his favourite activities. I have created a little library for him in our living room corner and he often brings me books for me to read to him. On average, I read to him about 1-2 hours each day and it could be anywhere between 10min to 40min each time. I speak another language other than English and it is just amazing how he is picking up both languages! 

Read about the benefits of reading to your child here:

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