Babies need books — and not just for chewing!

It all begins when you read to your baby.

No baby is too young to benefit from being read to! Faced with a newborn, concepts such as vocabulary and a love of books may seem remote, but even the youngest baby will often calm and seem attentive when she hears the sound of familiar voices reading in a gentle cadence. Studies show that babies in utero calm when the mother slows down and reads aloud to her baby.  

When read to, babies hear and learn words and also build an early interest in books and enjoyment of reading. Reading to babies provides them with the interaction and experience they need to learn about both the sounds that form words and spoken language in general. Numerous studies confirm that reading to infants not only encourages speech and language development, but can also boost overall brainpower.   

Physicians and researchers have known about the value of this experience for decades. The pediatric literacy program Reach Out and Read has been prescribing books and reading to low-income families for more than 20 years. Now, all pediatricians are on board with this practice!

The American Academy of Pediatrics recently announced a new policy recommending that doctors “promote early literacy development as an important evidence-based intervention at health supervision visits for children beginning in infancy and continuing at least until the age of school entry.”

In other words, during well-child visits, medical professionals with training in early literacy development will give parents concrete and age-appropriate advice about books and reading, and prescribe a regular reading schedule at home.  

Here are some favorite titles to help fill that prescription:

Babies love faces! The Baby Faces series of board books by Cartwheel Books (Scholastic) offers titles filled with faces of adorable babies sleeping, eating and smiling. Read the brief rhyming text (available in English or Spanish) or make up your own stories about what these captivating babies are doing. The expressions you make as you share these board books will help your baby learn to communicate.

As babies get older, they will want to handle books beyond putting them in their mouths. Look for titles with tactile appeal and lift-the-flap action like Pat the Bunny by Dorothy Kunhardt (Random House Children's Books) or Where is Maisy? (A Lift-the-Flap Book) by Lucy Cousins (Candlewick Press).

Books that rhyme and play with words and sounds will entertain and engage both parent and child. Have some silly reading fun with Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy Shaw (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) or Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? by Dr. Seuss (Random House Children’s Books).

Just as important as reading is talking and singing with your baby. Like reading, sharing conversation and songs help to increase the number of words kids hear during their earliest years — and helps build social and communication skills. If you’re not sure how to keep conversations going with your infant, brush up on Mother Goose or your favorite show tunes and watch just how much your baby enjoys the attention and the sound of your voice.

Guest blog post by TRC Advisory Council member and Belle of the Book, Rachael Walker.

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Get in on the ground floor: early literacy development at your Read-Aloud

Reading research demonstrates that literacy learning starts at birth. Crucial components of reading skills are built long before a child starts school, mostly by adults talking with young children, reading to them and providing them with lots of experiences.

Fortunately, very young children are champs at absorbing these important concepts and skills they’ll need later on. They just need a grown-up to show them. If I child doesn’t learn these concepts and skills before school starts, he’s going to be playing catch-up for a while. And even as kids are catching their stride as independent readers, practicing these early literacy skills strengthens their abilities. 

Here are the cornerstones of early literacy development and some ways to incorporate them into your Read-Aloud or a reading experience with a child in your life. 

Comprehension

Understanding what you read requires a large vocabulary, lots of experiences in the world and the abilities to both predict what will happen next and to connect what you are reading with your life experiences. 

 
Every new word a child learns and every experience a child has are money in the bank that he can draw on to help him understand as he reads or listens to a new text. The bigger the vocabulary and the more life experiences, the bigger the “account” from which to draw. 

To develop comprehension skills at your Read-Aloud, choose books with unusual words and take the time to talk with the kids about what those words mean. Choose books with a repetitive or predictable structure and pause while you are reading to let the kids practice predicting what will happen next. Some books, such as Who Hops? by Katie Davis, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? by Bill Martin Jr. and many books by Jan Brett include hints and questions to help kids guess what will come next. Encourage the kids to make connections between the book and their own experiences. Model these skills by saying things like “I wonder what that word means.” or “Gee—what will happen next. Maybe…” or “Oh, this reminds me of the time when I …”

Phonological Awareness

Phonological awareness means being aware that letters have sounds associated with them and words are a combination of those sounds. Children’s books are the perfect tools for helping kids become aware of letter and word sounds because so many of them have great rhyme, alliteration and rhythm. 

Rhyme and alliteration help kids learn about the sounds that letters make. Rhythm helps kids recognize words, syllables and the sounds they make. Nursery rhymes are also a great way to teach these skills since they include rhyme and often incorporate hand motions that illustrate the text.

"Experts in literacy and child development have discovered that if children know eight nursery rhymes by heart by the time they are four years old, they’re usually among the best readers by the time they are eight."  -- Mem Fox, Reading Magic.

Why? Because nursery rhymes have great rhyme, rhythm and alliteration.

To build phonological awareness at your Read-Aloud, choose books with rhyme, rhythm and alliteration (words all starting with the same sound.) Encourage the kids to finish rhymes when you pause, clap out rhythms and name other words that rhyme or start with the same sound.  Try pairing a book with an associated nursery rhyme. Teach younger kids the words and help them sing along.

Alphabetic Principle

Letters are just symbols. They are shapes that have sounds associated with them. Developing this concept requires helping kids recognize letters, name them and learn the sounds that are associated with them.

Read ABC books and books with alliteration with the kids. Encourage the kids to point out letters they recognize and to make the different sounds letters make. A recent story on NPR tells of a study that found that asking kids to identify letters on a page in a story helped their reading skills even several years later.

Concepts about print

Simply put, it’s understanding how books work. Any book will do. 

Help the child identify parts of the book (cover, spine, title page, author and illustrator), orient the books for reading (right side up), understand the direction of text (in English, we read left to right) and distinguish words from pictures. 

Reading research has identified the four concepts above as the cornerstones of early literacy development.  I’d add one more:  delight in books and reading.  Developing positive feelings about books and reading are also essential to becoming a life-long reader. So be sure to keep your Read-Alouds fun. You’ll be helping create readers from the bottom up!


To receive credit for this online training, please fill out the form here.

Using Songs and Finger Plays

Do you see many two- to five-year-olds in your Read-Aloud group? You'll notice that their attention span is quite short. To keep the children engaged, try using songs and finger plays in between books.


What is a finger play? Do you remember singing the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" as a child? Did you make hand motions as you sang? That's a finger play! Finger plays add coordinated, simple movements to a song. Young children imitate what they see you doing with your hands. Finger plays are a fun way to learn!

Check the internet for songs and finger plays aimed at preschoolers. Creative preschool teachers and play group leaders adapt classic sing-alongs to relate to almost any theme imaginable. Need a song about firefighters? Try "I'm a Little Teapot," morphed into "I'm a Little Firefighter."

Classic Finger Play Songs 
Itsy Bitsy Spider
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Wheels on the Bus
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed
Five Little Monkeys Playing in a Tree
Five Little Ducks
This Little Piggy

Active Finger Play Songs 
I'm a Little Teapot
Heads, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes
If You're Happy and You Know It


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