The Delight of Reading to Your Baby
One of the most delightful and important experiences as a parent can be snuggling up and reading a book out loud to your baby. It is an intimate one-on-one bonding activity. Your soothing voice is the one your baby knows best.
There are so many books and so little time! Start reading to your newborn immediately. Making reading a part of your family’s routine now will ensure that your child will continue to love books as they grow. And it’s just fun to do!
How Important is Reading Out Loud to Your Baby?
The research on the importance of reading to your baby is massive. But, the following seem to be the items that appear in almost any article on 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
- Reading out loud exposes baby to feelings through different sounds when reading, conveys the idea that words have meaning, and sounds mean certain things
- 0-3 month old babies will begin to focus on simple patterns such as shapes, letters, and colors
Here are a couple of items that are less prevalent in the typical reading research articles, but no less important. The first one makes sense but the second one was a bit of a shock (to me, anyway):
- It turns out that parents who read to their babies placed in the NICU can develop the same feelings of intimacy and bonding that parents of healthy newborns are able to do right after their baby’s birth
- We know reading builds vocabulary. However, books contain 50% more unique words than television OR the typical conversation between two educated adults!
How Do You Find a Good Read Aloud Book?
The list of books for babies is LONG! Just how do you find a good read aloud book for your baby? Here are a few things to look for when choosing a read aloud:
- The text should be simple, repetitive, and about familiar situations
- Sing-song or rhyming texts are ideal
- You will notice your baby’s arm and leg movements responding to the rhythmic movement of your voice reading
- Clear, simple pictures against solid backgrounds
- Nursery Rhymes are always appropriate-SAY and SING them!
Reading to Your Baby Bonus Tip #1
If there just isn’t a book available at the moment, narrate daily activities to your baby. Tell them about taking a bath, getting dressed, or what you are eating for lunch. Just about any activity has a story in it.
Reading to Your Baby Bonus Tip #2
You may get really tired of reading Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? for the ba-zillionth time! But, your baby LOVES the repetition and LEARNS from it.
“Any skill can be acquired by constant repetition”
Shinichi Suzuki
Reading to Your Baby Bonus Tip #3
In a future post, I will share with you a list of my favorite read aloud books. For now, I will recommend to you Jim Trelease’s Read-Aloud Handbook to help you in choosing books for your baby.
How Do You Read Aloud That Good Book You Have Found?
First, make reading to your baby an important priority in your day. Read aloud a few minutes several times a day. All that cuddling while reading creates a sense of safety and connection for your baby.
Second, it is extremely important to realize that your baby does not understand the words you are reading at first. But, they will pick up on the rhythm, tone and inflection of your voice.
Third, read with expression! If there is a daddy bear talking in the story, talk like a daddy bear. If there is an animal in the story, try talking like the animal would sound. You get the idea!
Then, as your baby gets older, actually stop occasionally and ask questions or make comments like, “Where is the kitty? There she is! Isn’t she cute?!”
Encourage your baby to LOOK, TOUCH, and ANSWER questions about the book. This will help them with learning words and social development as well.
How Important is Reading to You?
I hope reading is an important part of your life. Before you had your baby, you may have read stacks of books. But as a new parent, your reading material may be reduced to getting part way through a magazine. That’s OK. The important part is that your child sees you reading.
(As a personal note, I would like to share that I have never regretted one moment that I spent reading to my own children. Certainly there were dirty dishes in the sink and I could have run the vacuum more often. But reading to them was that important to me and to them.)
Keep a basket of books for your baby to have once they begin to crawl. Your baby will grow to know that reading is a delightful and important activity if you simply have books in your home and read them.
Reading is a very important part of the Suzuki Early Childhood Education (SECE) Baby Class program. If you would like to find a Baby Class program near you, please see our Resources page for more information.
Make a plan…
This week, choose a couple of board books to have in a basket ready to read to your baby when you have the opportunity. You and your baby will have special moments of delight together!
On the “Beautiful Heart Musical Journey” with you,
Susan
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