Help Your Baby Get Excited About Reading!
Are you a parent who loves to read? Even if you don’t, are you wondering if your baby will love to read? Learn how to help your baby become excited about reading even as a newborn.
Many parents think that their baby can’t get excited or wouldn’t appreciate being read to until they’re much older.
Maybe you thought of it this way, too. That’s understandable. But, in this post, you’ll learn the reasons to start reading to your baby sooner rather than later.
Now, there is more going on in your baby’s brain than you can even imagine. So, you don’t want to lose the precious opportunity to help develop their brain.
We’ll discuss how reading to your baby from the day they are born can help them be excited about reading. It would seem like a tiny baby would have no clue what you are reading to them.
Many of the “Your Musical Baby” Class activities focus on literacy. They help your baby to develop basic language skills that lead to reading and writing later on.
I honestly believe that one of the most delightful and important activities a parent can do with their baby is to snuggle up and read out loud to them.
It is truly an intimate one-on-one bonding experience. Your soothing voice is the one your baby know best.
That’s one reason to read to your newborn baby immediately. Make it a part of your routine and your baby will get excited about reading as they grow.
Besides all that, it’s just fun to do!
Research Proves That Reading Aloud Helps Babies Learn
There is a massive amount of research about the importance of reading to your baby. The following items seem to appear in almost any article about the subject.
- Reading stimulates language and cognitive skills, enhances memory, and teaches communication
- Babies read to as newborns typically have larger vocabularies and are better prepared to begin reading on their own later on
- Reading out loud exposes your baby to feelings through different sounds, conveys the idea that words have meaning, and sounds mean certain things.
- Even your 0-3 month old baby will begin to focus on simple patterns such as, shapes, letters, and colors.
But, there are also a couple of other items that didn’t appear so frequently. But they seem no less important. The first one made sense to me. But, the second one was a bit of shock (to me anyway).
- It turns out that parents who read to their babies that were placed in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) can develop the same feelings of intimacy and bonding as parents of healthy newborns that were able to bond right away with their baby.
- But, the second one was a bit of shock (to me anyway). We know that reading builds vocabulary. However, books contain 50% more unique words than television or the typical conversation between two educated adults.
How to Read Aloud
Now you know “why” you should read to your baby as early as possible. Let’s talk about “how” to find a good read aloud book for your baby. H
Believe me, the list of books for babies is long. But, you can narrow down your choices by looking for a few of the following things:
- A simple, repetitive text about familiar situations
- A sing song or rhyming text is ideal
- Pay attention to your baby’s reaction with their arm and leg movements as they respond to the rhythm of your reading voice
- Select simple, clear, pictures against solid backgrounds and avoid the overly busy- looking illustrations
- Nursery rhymes are always appropriate-say or sing them
Here are three other tips for reading aloud to your baby:
- You may not always have a book available. But, that’s okay because you can NARRATE daily activities to your baby, i.e. when you’re giving them a bath, getting them dressed, or feeding them. Just about any activity has a story in it!
- Realize that you may get really tired of reading “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” for the ba-zillionth time! But, remember that your baby LOVES the repetition and that is how they learn.
- In a future post, I’ll share with you my list of favorite read aloud books. But, for now, I recommend to you Jim Trelease’s “Read Aloud Handbook” to check out book titles.
Make Reading Aloud a Part of Your Day
Here’s the second “how-to” when reading to your baby. It’s important that reading out loud to your baby is a priority in your daily routine.
Try to read a few minutes several times a day. All that cuddling while you’re reading creates a sense of safety and connection for your baby.
Remember earlier in the post when we discussed whether your baby understood every word or not?
Well, at first they don’t understand the words. But, they will pick up on the rhythm, tone, and inflections in your voice.
So, that means read with EXPRESSION! If there’s a daddy bear talking in the story, then talk like a daddy bear. If there’s an animal in the story, say a goat, try talking like the animal might sound. You get the idea.
Then as your baby gets older, you can stop occasionally and ask questions or make comments. “Where’s the kitty? “There she is!” “Isn’t she cute?!”
Encourage your baby to LOOK, TOUCH, and ANSWER questions (when they are verbal) about the book. This will help them with learning words and social development as well.
Parents, Is Reading Important to You?
Now I have a question for you: How important is reading in your life? Remember, if you want your baby to be excited about reading, then you must be the example.
I do get that babies take over your life at least for a little while. In fact, I adopted my two children when they were 18 months and 3 years old. I was thrown into motherhood “head first” and I know how much time they can take up.
But, if your baby sees you pick up a book or magazine and read for even five minutes during the day, then the seed is planted in their mind.
On a personal note, I’d like to share with you that I never regretted one moment I spent reading to my children.
Believe me, more than once there were dirty dishes piled in the sink and the vacuum could have been run a little more often. But reading to them was that important in our home.
Finally, I encourage you to make reading important in your home. Keep a book or magazine handy for yourself.
Then, keep a basket of board books or cloth books for your baby to “read”. When they’re old enough to crawl and get to the basket of books, they will LOVE it!
Simply having books in your home and reading them will show your baby that reading is important. It is, indeed, something to get excited about!
“Your Musical Baby” Class Gets Babies Excited About Reading
I’d like to help you get a better idea of how “Your Musical Baby” Class creates an exciting reading environment.
You and your baby are invited to observe and ONLINE “Your Musical Baby” Class for free on any Saturday morning.
I know you are a busy parent, so I have made it super simple. Just use this sign up link below to get all the details in an email.
I hope you do because I’d like to see you and your baby in the next Saturday class! Then, we can begin your “Beautiful Heart Musical Journey” together!
On the “Beautiful Heart Musical Journey” with you,
Susan
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