Reading to your little one!
Why is reading so important?
Reading is critical to your child’s success in school and life! Think of everything we do that involves words and understanding language. Before children even learn to read, they appreciate the sounds of words and quality time spent with others. Reading to children can help grow their language and listening skills, and help them begin to be ready to read on their own.
When should you start reading to your baby?
It’s important to read to your baby while they are still nestled in the womb! Research suggests that babies start learning language patterns before they are even born! So, talking, singing, and reading are all benefiting your baby’s brain development before birth. What a great reason to start building your baby’s library and sharing stories out loud!
Literacy Milestones
What is the million word gap??
A study found that children going into Kindergarten whose parents read them five books a day heard about 1.4 million MORE words than children who are never read to. Kids need to learn vocabulary words, which will prepare them for more advanced skills like reading and writing!
Read more about the study here - The Million Word Gap.
Reading tips
Read with your child every day!
Try to read at least 5 books throughout the day
Infants: use black and white picture books in addition to color books! The high contrast will be easier for baby to see the pictures
Babies: Pick books with animal noises, fun sounds, and repetition
Toddlers: Use books with lots of pictures and topics that interest them
Children: Ask your child questions throughout the story and have them retell different aspects of the story
Sources:
Lanza, J. R., & Flahive, L. K. (2008). Guide to communication milestones: Concepts, feeding, morphology, literacy, mean length of utterance, phonological awareness, pragmatics, pronouns, questions, speech sound acquisition, vocabulary. East Moline, IL: LinguiSystems.
Logan, J. A., Justice, L. M., Yumuş, M., & Chaparro-Moreno, L. J. (2019). When Children Are Not Read to at Home. Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics, Publish Ahead of Print. doi:10.1097/dbp.0000000000000657