Activate your Child’s Imagination from Birth

Did you know that many parents are not aware that children should be read to straight from birth? For bonding, language learning, yes even as a baby, facial expression recognition, calming, repetitive learning and so much more.

We’ve listed the benefits below and how reading anytime anywhere can open up your baby and young child’s world;

• Reading is a free activity that can be done anywhere.
• Read anything! Signs, labels, shopping lists, posters, food labels etc. This helps your child understand that text has meaning.
• Reading helps make your child feel safe and loved. Sharing a book with your child is the perfect bonding moment. Your child has heard your voice, and the voices of special people in their lives, since they were in the womb. Your voice can be a comforting and soothing to them.
• Sharing a book together can be as long or as short as you like. A few pages on the bus or a whole morning’s activity from reading the story to a themed activity based on the book or an outdoor adventure to discover animals or objects from the book.
• There is no right or wrong way to read a book to a child. You might just wish to chat about the illustrations, or your little one might have a favourite part of the story that they love to revisit. It doesn’t always have to be read cover to cover.
• Your child won’t think you are silly for giving the characters unusual and funny voices! You could ask them what they think the character might sound like. You can experiment with voices together. It’s fun!
• Stories help your child name their emotions. Reading to your child gives them the opportunity to explore their empathy for characters. They can learn how to navigate the world around them and introduces them to different social interactions.
• Choosing books that have diverse characters will help your child see themselves in books as well as others who make up their community.
• When you read to your child, you are a super role-model. It shows them that reading is fun and exciting.
• Reading with your child will help them learn new words, develop sentence construction and help them mimic the rhythm of speech. Just watch their vocabulary grow! This will build their confidence. Learning new words will help your child communicate. This lessens their frustration around not being understood or having their needs met. It’ll help them be ‘school ready’.
• Reading sparks their imagination! Asking who, what & where questions when sharing a story gives your child choices to predict what is going to happen next or who might be hiding or imagining where have character has gone.

We love The Gruffalo and Tabby McTatt for their sing song rhyming and colourful illustrations, Guess How Much I Love you for bonding, the That’s not My series for sensory texture. There are so many interesting and wonderful books to read.

What’s your favourite?