0 - 3 years
3 - 5 years
1. It's never too early to start sharing stories. Point out the pictures and encourage your baby to babble.
2. Your baby will love the sound of your voice. Find a quiet place to enjoy a story.
3. It's good to share favourite stories again and again. Repeating phrases helps build children's language.
4. Introduce your child to a wide variety of books. Books come in all shapes and sizes - squashy books, books which make noises, books with 'touchy feely' bits.
5. If your child shows no interest in a book which you are keen to share, don't push it. Try it out again in a few months. Very small children don't always follow a story easily so it may be that you simply spend time looking at a single picture.
Make a scrapbook about your child full of pictures and words. Read the words with your child and get them to say what else should be in their story.
In 2000, Professor Barrie Wade and Dr Maggie Moore published Baby Power: Give your child real learning power (Egmont) for all parents, relatives and carers who want to introduce pre-school children to books but are not sure how. It included the following advice:
| Do |
Don't |
- Make it fun for both you and the baby and praise him or her ?
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- Worry if the baby chews the books (even library books)
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- Talk about the book and its pictures even if you think your baby doesn't understand ?
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- Expect too much of your baby or criticise
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- Let your baby hold and handle the book and turn the pages ?
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- Be disappointed if your baby isn't interested - try again later
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- Take your baby to the library and let your baby choose the books ?
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- Have the television on at the same time because it's distracting
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- Read a book lots of times because your baby won't get bored ?
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- Feel guilty about taking time out to read to your baby
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1. Let your children pretend to read. If your child is familiar with books, they'll get on better when they start school.
2. Help your child to join in. Let them turn pages and guess what happens next. Follow the words with your finger, point out pictures and talk together about the story.
3. Use funny voices, toys and actions to make the characters come alive.
4. Young children can get bored quickly, so little and often is best. A good ten minutes is better than a difficult half-hour.
5. Choosing books to read together can be fun. Don't object if your child wants the same book again and again - if they keep going back to a book it is because they are getting something from it.
Play the nonsense game. Cut out pictures from catalogues or magazines of objects that all begin with the same letter, plus a few that don't. Write down the names of the objects and get your child to match the picture to the name. Can they make a nonsense sentence with their words?
Download A4 advice sheets
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