Ever since she was a tiny baby, Neve has shown a great fascination with books. Now 18 months old, books have become a very regular part of our daily routine, and not just as part of the countdown to bedtime. As well as playing with her favourite Tonies characters and Yoto cards, there are various points of the day where Neve will scoop up her latest favourite and quite literally reverse backwards onto my lap, contently plonking herself down for a snuggle and chanting “buhhhh”. She will sit contently for quite some time, and I savour every precious moment.
Reading to babies and toddlers can be hugely beneficial for their development, and whilst Mike thought I was crazy to start reading to Neve as a newborn, there are many proven benefits of doing so. Thanks to The Book People, we’ve been putting some of their wide range of baby books to the test.
Why should I read to my baby/toddler?
- Reading a book as part of your baby/toddler’s countdown to bedtime is the perfect way to create some quiet bonding time. Chances are this quiet calming activity will be a repeated signal that bedtime is approaching, and in the same way that brushing their teeth or putting on their pyjamas becomes part of their routine, the book will become a habitual trigger that it’s time to go to sleep.
- Reading to babies and toddlers can help expand their vocabulary. At this young age, the more words they hear from you and the people around them, the more they will pick up and the faster their own speech will develop. Books with simple words that they hear around their home on a regular basis, can encourage them to make their very own first words. Start with simple words like Mum, Dad, Cup and Ball, and you will be surprised at how quickly they start to repeat them!
- Introduce them to colours – Babies vision changes rapidly in those early weeks and months, and the bigger that they get, the more their sight develops. Reading to babies, especially books with contrasting colours, monochrome prints or bright pages can help stimulate their senses and teach them about colour and shade.
- Introduce them to numbers – Counting together with your child, repetition, rhyme and rhythm all help get your toddler used to reciting numbers and helps develop their memory.
- Introduce the links between word and sound – Books don’t have to be read in silence. Neve loves to dance, so books that combine turnable pages and a button that makes music or sounds are right up her street! They also helps babies and toddlers learn about cause and effect, with their action of pressing a button having a resulting sound or song.
- Embrace their natural curiousity – Books with textures, interactive elements like mirrors, or flaps and doors to open are great for helping your baby explore and develop their natural curiosity – they will want to touch, to turn, and to pull open to reveal the image below. Whilst she can be a little heavy handed at times, Neve loves the surprise of lifting the flaps to see what hides behind!
- A familiar friend – As with most young children, Neve is a huge fan of Peppa Pig, and so books featuring familiar characters from the series are immediately comforting to her. Seeing characters on the pages that they they have previously warmed to, will help babies feel reassured by their familiarity. Neve likes to point at the characters she recognises (like Peppa, and Dorrrrggge”) as she flicks through the pages.
- Encouraging Dexterity – Board Books, particularly chunky board books with handles which are easy to hold, are ideal for helping encourage dexterity – with even the chunkiest of fingers being able to turn and manipulate the pages.
- Comfort – Reading to babies, especially younger ones, exposes them to the sound of your voice – something they’ve been comforted by in the womb for quite some time! Hearing you read (no matter what the content in fact) can be incredibly calming and comforting to a baby who is tired or distressed.
- Distraction -Reading to babies is an ideal way to keep children occupied where they may otherwise start to become distracted, restless or impatient. Books with a clip or hook that attaches to a pushchair or stroller are ideal, perfect whilst you’re waiting to pay at the shops. Unlike a traditional book, there is also less chance of them accidently getting lost or discarded!
- Reading books with creative images, text or visuals can help stimulate your baby’s imagination and senses, helping them to learn more about the world around them.
- Whilst babies have shorter attention spans (normally 10 minutes at a time is sufficient), reading to babies and toddlers is a great tool for developing listening skills, something which will prove valuable when they start preschool or nursery.
- Most importantly, reading with your baby and using a range of voices, inflections and tones, helps your child learn that reading is fun – an important message and a strong life skill! 🙂
However you decide to read with your baby, enjoy it. The baby days absolutely fly by, and before you know it they will be blending and learning to read on their own, and picture books will become phonics, and numbers become sums!
*This post was sponsored by Book People*
Guess how much I love you is a favourite in our home xxx
Goodnight Mr Fox – we would be thrilled
Room on a Broom!
my little girl loves anything with animals in at the moment, we are reading spot a lot!
Anything by Dr Seuss
Anything by Roald Dahl, classic and timeless.
My favourite book to read with my children is The Very Hungry Caterpillar!
I love reading books from my childhood – Dear Zoo is a favourite
Such a great post. Love the photo’s and book choices. Reading is definitely so beneficial and The Book People are my favourite.
We love the Mr Men books and there are lots of them!
Oh Lucy I love this! Dexter does exactly the same as Neve and will plonk himself on my knee with a book, it was one of his first words and he says it in such a scouse accent it’s hilarious! Couldn’t agree more that reading is so important and so beneficial to our toddlers!
the gruffalo
The Goodnight Train my little grandson loves it
I couldn’t agree more!
Percy the Park Keeper
Guess how much I love you
We have lots of favourite books but one of our most favourites has to be ‘We’re going on a bear hunt’
Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson
Love to read ‘ The Gingerbread man
Alfie Gives a Hand by Shirley Hughes is a big favourite
10 little teddies and never tickle a tiger
My grandchildren love listening to Roald Dahl and the little ones love Suzies Shoes
My grandson Jacob loves anything with animals in it, especially the ones with flaps to lift
We love the Thats not my Books!
I love to read the Beatrix Potter books to my little boy. He’s naughty like Squirrel Nutkin!
I don’t have any children but these would be lovely first books for my new nephew
We are in love with the Beatrix Potter books at the moment
Each peach, Pear. Plum
I read to my Grandchildren a book that was a favourite of my 2 daughters, No, No, Charlie Rascal, it’s fun and a bit noisy too
It would have to be The Cat in the Hat
All my children love reading The Enormous Turnip. I have to read it at least 3 times a week.x
Room on the broom is our favourite
My Nephew has a book of weird facts that he loves to take everywhere! So we love to read that!
a book that my mum used to read to me called mervyn the mouse
Lovely prize. Would love to win!
The Ugly Five by Julia Donaldson
At the moment we are enjoying The Gruffalo’s Child
Goldilocks and the three bears
My little boy keeps asking for scary stories. We love Spookyrumpus (which we can both recite without the book now, so we ‘read’ it in the dark under the covers, to add to the atmosphere!
I love reading Dear Zoo, Isla does all the noises!
Anything from the Ladybird First Favourite Tales range. They are all great. I think The Three Little Pigs is loved the most though.
Ours is Chicken Licken x
The hungry caterpillar
STICK MAN
We love the Gruffalo
My granddaughter loves peppa pig
My son is 9.5 months and he favourite has to be one of the JellyCat books – Little Bunny Goes to the Moon. He has several bunny toys and loves when I bring the book to life by making bunny fly and make noises for the twinkling stars etc.
igglepiggle lost his blanket is my daughters fave book
The Smartest Giant in Town
Charlie Rascal. 🙂
Anything by roald dahl
Our favourite author is Julia Donaldson and our absolute favourite is Room on the Broom,I cannot tell you how many times we have read that book! X
Gruffalo
The goodnight Train and A Cat Called Christmas x
The Gruffalo
Charlie chick
the three little pigs 🙂 we all love it
We often read The tiger who came to tea or any of the Dr Seuss!
Disney’s Pocahontas
I love to read dear zoo to my nephews, we have great fun making animal noises!
We love Room On The Broom x
My daughter, as does my little neice, always loved Elmer the Elephant ❤️ they always used to talk about the pretty colours and how much they loved Elmer!
How To Catch A Star by Oliver Jeffers.
We like reading Topsy and Tim books
I like reading all the books I used to have as a child – brings back so many memories. Owl Babies, Peace At Last, the Old Bear & Friends series!
My little girl loves Shark in the Park
The cat in the hat
Well kids on the way but I am looking forward to reading some Roald Dahl anything
the magic porridge pot x
I just love guess how much I love you!
Timothy and the strong pyjamas by Vivian Schwartz is a firm favourite:)
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
The Very Hungry Caterpillar is our all time favourite book to read together. The children know the words off by heart.
The Gruffalo 🙂
Love reading the dancing tiger pictures are lovely
Mr Men and Little Miss books are favourites.
Reading is always a wonderful time.
the hungry caterpillar
my sons fave is called a squash and a squeeze by julia donaldson
Stick Man
At the moment my daughter loves any book with the big bad wolf in it lol. Three little pigs, red riding hood etc
love the mr men and little miss books
My three year old loves there’s a monster in my book and the 8 month old likes that’s not my books!
I loved The Rainbow Fish so I’ll need to get that for my book mad toddler.
I love the Room on a Broom x
The Gruffalo
The Gruffalo