"I started to read books when my child was in my womb; here are some benefits to read to your child early. Just place your hand on the womb, read and mentally communicate with your child for at least five to 10 minutes."
By Kuhoo Gupta
Books play a vital role in teaching literacy and important values to our kids. These are the ultimate guide to spark your child’s imagination and stimulate curiosity within them. They help a child understand, for instance, “the moral of the story” and how they can manifest it in their own lives. Books help your child to develop the knowledge of sound, words, language, understanding, listening skills, emotional intelligence, early intellectual and literacy skills. These are the companion your child needs.
However, how can we solve the looming factor of boredom and instil the idea of reading in our children? We all want our children to master the art and thus, we invest tremendous effort to strengthen their reading skills and ability to acquire knowledge. Our efforts are often met with confusion, boredom, lack of interest and mood swings. It is obvious that the activities we facilitate for toddlers in early childhood at home are ultimately a supplement to the classroom.
So let us understand some simple steps as a parent to help you strengthen the bond and give your child a headstart to learning.
I started to read books when my child was in my womb; here are some benefits to read to your child early. Just place your hand on the womb, read and mentally communicate with your child for at least five to 10 minutes.
· Reading helps in developing good attention span and fostering memorisation.
· Reading to the baby in the womb reportedly helps the child’s grasping power and increases vocabulary later in life.
· Reading to your child at an early age helps in speech improvement and brain development.
· Babies get used to listening and this process helps them in future to read and keep exploring more.
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Start to read out loud when your child is a couple of days old. There is no infant specific book that you really require. You can just start to read anything interesting, facing the child and emoting, while telling him that “I am reading it to you”. Even if your infant does not understand what you are reading, you are still establishing a routine of reading and making him understand the importance of the sound and vocabulary you are communicating.
I strongly recommend reading for not more than 5 to 10 minutes in a moderate and soft voice to the infant because they are highly sensitive and in the process of developing their senses; we do not want to overwhelm them.
Pick up visually appealing books
Many parents wonder which books to read to their toddlers at an early stage. Don’t pick up “ABCD books” as the first book for your child. Pick up books with lots of pictures and less text. Since they can’t comprehend letters yet, visual stimulation through beautiful illustrations help your baby to enhance cognitive skills. Point out objects in the book and talk about them with your baby, help them link names with specific objects and relate it to real life.
Be as dramatic as the story demands
Create immense drama in your voice while reading out loud; remember, this makes a lot of difference. If there are any emotions emerging from the story, bring it out dramatically and make the story come alive so that your child is glued to what is going on.
Point at the word when reading
This will the child develop a sense that what you are reading is written somewhere in the book. The child will develop the sense of association between letters/words and the spoken voice. They will comprehend that words have some meaning.
Introduce board books first
These are just perfect for little ones. With those hard covers and hard pages in the book, the child will slowly learn the etiquette to handle and turn the pages properly.
Introduce interactive books
The child first needs to develop a love for books and they shouldn’t be an alien object to them. So for this reason, parents must introduce their child to “sound books”, “lift the flap books”, “sticker books”, etc. These perfectly capture the attention of a toddler with their interactive quality.
(The writer is Founder of The K Junction.)
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