Babytalk Magazine interviews Diane Frankenstein, award winning author of Reading Together http://www.parenting.com/Babytalk/babytalk.jsp?genID=7
Why is it important to read to young babies? How young should you start?
Read to very young children, beginning at birth, whenever possible and as often as possible and have a ritual about reading aloud every day in the same place at the same time; children need the safety of a predictable life; it helps them feel secure The foundations of learning to read are set down form the moment a child first hears the sounds of people talking, the tunes of songs, and the rhythms and repetitions of rhymes and stories. Children who do not have this exposure enter school facing a stumbling block of learning to read. Children’s brains are only 25% developed at birth. From that moment, whenever a baby is fed, cuddled, played with, talked to, sung to, or read to, the other 75 % of its brain begins to develop. The crucial connections that determine how clever, creative, and imaginative a child will be are already laid down by the time that child turns one.
What do they get out of it? (Is it just the soothing sound of your voice? Can reading calm them? Or is it more that it becomes part of their routine?)
Infants’ earliest relationships with their caregivers are closely linked to their success in the classroom later in life. Academic success is influenced by early childhood experiences. The benefits of reading aloud cannot be stressed enough. Many parents don’t take the benefits of reading aloud seriously enough because they feel that reading aloud is too simple and obvious to be that important. The time you spend reading to your child is the best predictor of later reading success. A child’s desire to learn to read comes from being read to. Infants’ earliest relationships with their caregivers are closely linked to their success in the classroom later in life. Academic success is influenced by early childhood experiences. The benefits of reading aloud cannot be stressed enough. Many parents don’t take the benefits of reading aloud seriously enough because they feel that reading aloud is too simple and obvious to be that important. The time you spend reading to your child is the best predictor of later reading success. A child’s desire to learn to read comes from being read to.
What are four or five great books for babies?
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Bill Martin
The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Eric Carle
Pat the Bunny, Dorothy Kunhardt
The Carrot Seed, Ruth Krauss
Helen Oxenbury, Say Goodnight—any and all of her board books
