How to Encourage a Love for Reading in Your Baby or Toddler

Reading is an amazing hobby to have. It helps you learn better, opens up whole new worlds and cultures to you, and provides hours of entertainment and fun. Reading to your child when he is a baby starts him on the path to a love for books, and has other benefits as well. Reading to babies helps their social and emotional development as well as their language skills. According to Kidshealth.org, "Studies show that kids with active exposure to language have social and educational advantages over their peers - and reading is one of the best exposures to language."

Read to Your Baby or Toddler

This one almost goes without saying if you want to encourage a love for reading in your baby or toddler, but it deserves to be said anyway. Read early on and often. Even as a very young infant, your baby will still enjoy hearing your voice. For a very young baby, you don't even have to be reading baby books. You can read your favorite book out loud as you feed your baby, or just while she's resting next to you.

Make Reading a Special Time

Try to read at least one book a day to your baby or toddler. A bedtime story is a great way to end the day. A story before naptime is also good. Interactive books can also be a fun part of playtime.

Have Siblings Read to Each Other

If you have an older child, have her read stories to your baby or toddler. This will be a special time for the two (or more) of them. It can also help your older child read better since she's getting the practice. You can even have a family reading hour where everyone chooses a book and reads it, or take turns letting each child pick a book to be read to everyone.

Read Yourself

A baby who grows up seeing his parents reading for fun will think of reading as something enjoyable to do. If you're not too interested in books yourself, try getting some magazines, or even read the news from a newspaper rather than from the computer.

Visit the Library Often

Anyone who loves to read knows that going to a library, with its rows upon rows of books just waiting to be read, is one of life's great pleasures. Take your baby or toddler to the library and discover new books together. Once your baby turns into a toddler, let her walk around a bit and pick out books herself. Borrow a fresh bunch of books every time you visit the library.

Keep a Varied and Interesting Collection of Books

When your child is a baby and toddler, keep a variety of different types of books at home. Have picture books, story books, and interactive books on a variety of topics, such as animals, babies, and colors. Some examples of interactive books that a toddler may like are touch-and-feel books, lift-the-flap books, pop-up books, and sound books. Find out your toddler's interests and get him books that encourage those interests.

For tips on how to maximize the benefits of reading to your child, see this article.

References

Kids' Health: Reading Books to Babies

Kids' Health: Toddler Reading Time