Books are a vital part of our lives. And they should be our best friends. Every book takes us to a different world. Children come across books during their pre-school and school days. But we introduced books to our son when was a few months old. My family used to tease for that. Least did they know that this habit has made my kid love books now when he is a toddler. He chooses books over toys. And I am so proud of that. In this post, I would take the opportunity to cite the benefits of reading to your baby. It is never too early to read to your baby.
Soothes the baby
A baby can recognises mom’s voice from his birth itself. In fact many doctors encourage pregnant mothers to read our aloud to the babies in their womb because babies can hear outside voices at 23 weeks gestation age. Mom’s voice soothes the baby. It creates a special bond between the two.
Helps in learning emotions
When you read using different sounds and expressions, it helps your baby understand various emotions and meanings according to the tone of your voice.
Generates his interest in books
Babies start distinguishing between colours around five months of age. Showing him various colours and patterns catches his attention. It also helps in giving him a visual stimulation and hence increases his cognitive skills.
Increases their attention span
Babies have a very short attention span. Reading book while making him sit at one place helps in increasing this span. It improves their power to focus on an object. And learn how to move their eyes while you point at pictures.
Increases their vocabulary
Babies register sounds and words and in the long run, reading to them helps in improving their vocabulary. It is noticed that the babies who were introduced books earlier, knew more words by the time they turned 2 years old. And also they learn to read at the right time. Reading to your baby helps him register new words in his memory everyday.
Improves their listening skills
Ohh ! We all want our kids to be good listeners. Reading to your baby, helps in raising good listeners.
Helps in developing other skills
When a baby sees you read, he sees you point finger to a picture or turn a page. These are all helping him learn these skills and do it himself when he grows up. Felt books with various textures help the baby understand different textures.
How to introduce books to the babies
For starters, introduce reading books as a part of your bedtime routine. As I mentioned, your voice soothes the baby. Reading a book before sleep helps in calming the baby and a better sleep. You can start reading for five minutes and start increasing the time gradually. And, the best part is, involve his dad in this routine too. In the early days, you can read your own book to the baby. But soon introduce children’s books. I would be writing a detailed post on how to introduce books to your babies. Watch this space 🙂
Enjoy these cuddly reading times !
These are great tips! I always read to mine when they couldn’t sleep and it helped!
Reading before bed is such an awesome routine! My kids love it and they react so well to a bedtime snuggle and story. I hope it inspires a life long love of reading.
My little one loves books! She likes being read to, but she also likes to hold the book and explore on her own!
Thanks for sharing! When I had my first son, I always felt awkward.I felt like I was talking to an audience haha reading is a good way for parents to cope with that fear 🙂
Wonderful tips! This is actually good for both mom and baby!
great tips! I too read before bed, my little one loves bed time stories.
Awesome mama 🙂
I have read to my daughter since the day she was born. Now she is four and loves books! She has such a large collection!
I’m a nanny and one of my favorite parts of the job is story time and watching the change as the child becomes more and more interested in books. I find it especially cute when they can’t read yet but will open a book and put their finger on words and just talk. It’s so great. Great post! I agree with you on all points!
I know. Its too cute.
We are big readers in my house! My 5 year old loves to read with me and my 1 year old is really into it too. It is so good for them and awesome one on one time as well.
Reading to kids is a topic VERY close to my heart. I believe early literacy is extremely important and we only have about 4-5 years to influence how the little human will grow up to be. Great summary and I hope a lot of parents can read this.
I would read to my girls every night before bed when they were little. It was a special bonding time for us, and I know they go so much out of it.
We started reading to our baby when he turned 1 but lost interest soon. Your post motivated me to start again. Those are real good benefits for little ones.
I wholeheartedly believe in this! My parents read to us when we were little and all 7 of us have grown up to be avid readers!
Reading is a good habit, both for kids and adults. I used to read many books from my childhood. Great summary and I hope a lot of parents can read this.
Awww I love reading to babies. I do agree that all of the above are fantastic reasons to do so.
I think babies get so much out of being read to!! This is adorable.
i would have never thought to read to them when they are so young. this will be a good post for me when i have kids soon!
My son loved books! He liked story time so much! Sometimes he would pretend he was reading it!
I love this post. It is so important to read to babies and children. It astounds me that some parents don’t do this.
Reading to children is so important. I would read to my children each day and it was relaxing and quiet time.
We have bed time stories. They love having their dad read to them.
Reading is so very important, and I love all the reasons why that you’ve shared! I started reading to Bella before she was born, and even now, she knows that when mommy sits in the rocking chair, its reading time! I know that books are the reason she has such a good vocabulary at 2, but I cannot say it helped with her attention span! LOL. I still have to just about pin her down to read to her. LOL
So well written!
It is so true, that its never to too late or early start reading to kids….
I love reading to my boys, and so enjoy when they pretend to be me and come up with their own stories looking at the pictures.
Wow Great tips Anchal. We too love reading books. Reading books is so essntial and something I really want Tuggu to pick up.
It does improves their vocabulary makes them more imaginative …we love our daily reading routine to the core
And you are an inspiration 🙂
Reading to kids is such a great way to bond with them. It encourages and improves their ability to listen to long discussion.
I love reading to my son and he loves it. It’s great for kids to learn and using gestures to explain the meaning of words makes it fun and cognitive experience for children. It’s a great bonding time too
These are some really important and valuable points. I didn’t know babies could distinguish colors as a tender age of 5 months!
I wrote a similar post some time back. Reading is the best habit which can help babies and kids in the long run.
Books are our happy place. When baby T was youngr and was feeling frustrated or upset.. books was the one thing which would calm him down. Now he likes fairy stories and longer stories. He chooses his own books now. I am glad I started reading to him early.