It's never too early to start reading to your baby.  Reading should be a fundamental part of your child's language development.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends reading aloud daily to your baby starting at 6 months of age -- about the time when he'll really begin to enjoy looking at books with you.  There is no right way to read to your baby.  The idea is to share the story and enjoy the experience.  Your child just wants to be close to you and to hear your voice, which is one of the most powerful tools for creating a comforting environment.  The most important thing is that you both just have fun with it.  Relax and enjoy this time!

Reading to infants requires that you give them your full attention.  You can't be walking around or engaging in other tasks at the same time.  It also encourages you to hold your baby where he or she can see your face:  in your arms or on your lap, tummy up.  This position offers lots of opportunity for eye contact, says Clarie B. Koop, author of Baby Steps:  The Whys of your Child's Behavior in the First Two Years.  As she explains, when face to face babies can see the different expressions on their parents' faces, while parents can observe infants' reactions to sounds and visual stimuli as well as their need to move or to sit quietly, and their attention span.

Hearing stories lays the groundwork for language development.  Infants pick up the sound of language, its rhymes, rhythms, and intonation patterns.  We know that very young children are sensitive to these sounds, in part because the onset of language has been seen to occur earlier in youngsters who have been read to.

Reading to your baby will help build his vocabulary, stimulate his imagination, and improve his communication skills.  In fact, the more you speak to your child from the beginning, the better it is for his growth and development.  Studies have shown that language skills -- and even intelligence -- are related to how many words an infant hears each day.  In one study, babies whose parents spoke to them a lot (an average of 2,100 words an hour) scored higher on standard tests when they reached age 3 than did children whose parents hadn't been as verbal.  A running commentary on the state of the neighborhood during your walk and naming your child's body parts as you bathe him are good ways to chat.  Reading is one more fun way to add variety to your verbal interactions.

Prior to 6 months, your baby will enjoy listening to your voice and making the positive association between your soothing voice and books.  Your young baby will enjoy this wonderful time spent together and will particularly enjoy the rhythm of rhymes, lullabies and poetry.  The young baby will also enjoy looking at books with simple black-and-white patterns or bright colors.  However, don't over stimulate baby with pages that are cluttered with visuals.  Keep the books simple with one or two large illustrations per page.  For obvious reasons, cloth, plastic and sturdy board books work well for this age. 

Let your child set the pace.  While it might seem logical to you to read a story from beginning to end without interruption, this isn't always the best experience for your child.  When you let your child choose the pages and set the pace, you work with your child's attention span.  And focusing on the parts of the book that are most interesting for your child is the best way to foster a love of reading.  Sometimes your child will want to go slow, and other times fast.  Sometimes your child will want to start in the middle of the book and just look at favorite pages.  Other times your child will want to spend the whole time touching and discovering all of the sounds and sights on just one page.  Anything goes!

At about 6 months your baby can concentrate a little longer and will be able to inspect objects for a longer period of time.  Your baby will love to explore textured books and will enjoy seeing colorful, realistic illustrations and photographs of familiar objects.  Books that encourage you and your child to make animal sounds and other noises are great choices for this age!

Reading fosters a baby's ability to pay attention -- to temporarily stop exploring the world in order to settle down and attend to something of interest.  Early reading can also subtly reinforce children's social skills because being exposed to a wide range of books gives them access to a wide range of emotions, as well as the language to express how they feel.

Language skills develop rapidly after your baby's first birthday and books become much more important than they were during his first year of life.  He is no longer the passive baby who will sit quietly while you read to him.  He wants to interact with books turning the pages, examining the illustrations, and pointing out the objects he can identify.  Lift-the-flap books work well now.

At about 18 months your baby is ready for you to begin to introduce concept books.  These books help children understand numbers, letters, shapes, colors, textures, actions, size, direction and parts of the body.  These books will help convey the message that books and learning are FUN!  Books with big detailed illustrations captivate a toddler's interest.  By age two most children can follow a simple story in a picture book and are happy to flip through books on their own.  Let your child be the judge.

Babies need to feel an emotional connection with the words being spoken or they simply filter out the language, so steer clear of books on tape, as well as radio and television.  As with all activities parents do with kids, its how attentive parents are to their kids' responses that is so critical, says Betty Hart, professor emeritus of human development at the University of Kansas in Lawrence.  As for videos, experts say most are best reserved for children over age 3.

When you read to your young child, focus on the pleasure at hand, not the alphabetical learning experience.  An early emphasis on teaching letters, sounds, and syllables can sap the enjoyment of story time.  If you read to your child enough, he'll eventually -- when he's ready -- make the connection between the sounds of words and the letters on the pages.  In the meantime, teaching him to enjoy reading is a much more valuable lesson than learning his phonics at an early age.

As your child's first teacher, you lay the foundation for learning to read and for becoming a good reader.  Learning to read and wanting to read are two separate issues.  Reading starts in the home, the center of a child's world for learning.  Wanting to read depends in part upon encouragement from parents.

Reading aloud to your child may prove to be the single most important activity for building the knowledge necessary for reading.

TIPS FOR READING TO BABY:

Though it can feel slightly awkward at first, reading aloud to your baby is beneficial in several important ways.  She is listening and learning, even when her responses are limited to cooing, drooling, and babbling.

• Read together every day if you can.  Even if it's just for a few minutes, you'll see enormous benefits from reading together.  By establishing a reading routine, you give your child special time to look forward to each day.
• Read at different times.  If your child associates reading with going to bed he will not want to read when he does not wnat to go to bed.
• Hold your baby close when you read.
• Make sure your baby can see the book clearly.  Your view may not always be the best for your baby.
• Turn the pages slowly to allow baby to focus on the illustrations.  At 15 - 18 months let your baby turn the pages.
• Change expressions and use different voices to dramatize the story.
• Be interactive.  Talk about what is happening in the book and point out objects and identify them.  Ask your child questions and respond to his comments.
• Reading should be fun!  Don't end up drilling your child.
• Follow your child's cues and stop reading whenever he seems tired or looses interest.  Most one and two year olds can sit still listening to books for only 10 to 15 minutes.  Never force your child to read.

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