Page 7 - teachYourChildToRead

Birth to one year 7

voice, therefore select story books for your infant that have a fair amount
of text and large clear pictures. Click here to link through to a list of great
books to share with your baby.

Three to six months

In their first six months of life children spend a lot of time lying on their
backs. Most of their wakeful time may be spent laying back and looking
directly up at ceiling. When infants are between three to four months,
lay down beside them to read. This way you are getting into their zone,
physically touching and also viewing the book from the same position.
Having a loving adult lay down beside them and reading in a calm,
clear voice is a very pleasurable experience for an infant. The picture
book above them also provides a visual stimulus that allows children
to practice focusing. When your child can support their head better; sit
them in your lap to read.

When reading to your infant don’t be afraid to go over the top with
interesting and excitable noises, the more enthusiastic you are the
more your child will enjoy it.

Six to twelve months
“Babies from 6 months of age who are read to regularly understand far
more words and have a 40% increase in receptive vocabulary by the time
they are 18 months old, babies that are not read to have an increase of only
16
16% in their receptive vocabulary ”.
From about six to eight months of age children begin to want to hold the
book themselves and turn the pages independently. When reading to a
very young child, it is not important to turn pages in the right direction
or even to finish the book. Just enjoy your time and play with the book like
it is a toy, read as much as they will allow you and talk about whatever
page you happen to be looking at.

Ideal for children under twelve months of this age are books that
include photographs of people, animals and familiar objects on plain
backgrounds. Young children relate better to simple photographs than
books that have cartoon type illustrations. Smaller board books are great
as they enable the infant to hold the book, rotate it and turn the pages
independently.