As March begins we celebrate Dr Seuss’s birthday, which also marks the 21st annual celebration of “Read Across America Day”. Parents and educators plan all sorts of fun activities with a primary goal in mind. We want our children to find joy in reading and hopefully, become avid readers for the rest of their lives.
We would like to take this opportunity to help families with young children understand that literacy is much more than just reading. In fact, literacy development covers a much wider range of learning, as toddlers should work on the building blocks for literacy – which are the ability to listen, understand, speak, read and then write.
Research shows that interactive reading is a great way to help build a child’s vocabulary and understanding. In the early months, hold your baby close and read, talk and sing to him or her. Place your baby on your laps so you’ll be able to hold the book in front at his or her eye level. This is important, so the baby will be able to sense your closeness and see the book as you read it.
Your child will love cuddling up with you to read a book, making him or her feel safe and secure. Reading with your infant will spark his/her imagination, stimulate his/her curiosity as well as improve his/her language skills by imitating sounds, recognizing pictures, learning new words and acquiring valuable information about the world around him/her. As an alternative, try sitting face to face, holding the book by your face, so you can establish eye contact and see how your child is responding to the story. This way, they can look at your mouth and watch how you make sounds and words.
You don’t have to read an entire book. Young children can only sit for a few minutes for a story, but as they grow, they will be able to sit longer. Let your children decide how much (or how little) time you spend reading to them. Make sure you read to them various times throughout the day. Choose books that are appropriate and match your child’s interests.
Choose appropriate books
Begin with durable board books and soft fabric books with lift-up flaps, a mirror for self-discovery and fun sounds that stimulate a baby’s senses and are robust enough for little hands and mouths to explore. These books are simple, with large pictures, contrasting patterns, bright colours and made of different textures.
By their first birthday, your child understands that pictures represent objects. Choose books with pictures and one-word per page of familiar objects and people, like ball, dog, mommy, daddy and baby. Make sure the stories relate to familiar activities such as playing, bathing and sleeping.
As you read to your child, help the story come alive as you create voices for story characters and act out what you read with your face, hands and the rest of your body. Other times, you can just describe the pictures in the book. Your baby will respond while you read, grabbing for the book, pointing to pictures that interest him/her as well as repeat the sounds and gestures you make while telling the story.
Your child will begin to connect pictures with its meanings, such as seeing the picture of a ball and say “ba”. When asked “Where’s the doggy?” your toddler will point to the picture of the dog. While reading, you can get your child to jump like a frog, clap his/her hands, play peek a boo and go on a treasure hunt.
By 18-24 months you can introduce books with one or two sentences per page. Choose books where the main character is performing an action, such as Curious George Makes Pancakes, Curious George at the Aquarium, Carl Goes Shopping and Carl’s Afternoon in the Park. By 36 months, you and your toddler should be reading books that tell simple stories.
Model the correct way to hold a book
Your child will learn by watching you hold the book the right way, start the story when you open-up the cover, turn the pages from left to right, and finish the story once you close the book. You and your toddler can take turns holding the book and turning the pages appropriately. Have him/her point at the pictures and words as you read and make sure your toddler understands that you are reading from left to right.
Every so often, stop reading and ask your child what he/she thinks will happen next. Ask “who” and “what” questions and as he/she gets older incorporate “how” and “why” questions. Get your child to fill in the words in a story he/she knows. Also try pausing and letting your toddler finish your sentences for you. Encourage conversations that help your child develop his/her abilities to listen, understand, speak and “read.”
Although you may tire of the same book, your toddler benefits from hearing the same story over and over as he/she learns best through repetition. Persuade your child to “read” to you, to another family member or even to his/he stuffed animals.
Connect the story in the books with your toddler’s world around them. For example, if you’ve read a book about playing in a park, you might like to take your child to the local park and point out swings that look like the ones in the book.
Create photo albums of your child’s adventures, such as spending a day at the park, the beach, the zoo and the aquarium. Like Curios George, your child can be the focus of the story as you can print lots of photos of these events. You can label each photo and your child can tell the story. When he/she is young, you can write down the story your toddler describes and include it in the photo album. As your toddler grows, encourage him/her to draw and write his/her own story.
As you introduce your child to Dr Seuss books, reinforce these lessons with themed craft activities. Look at Pinterest, for ideas for your toddler. For example, you can construct a “cat in the hat”, make a fishbowl from a paper plate to add fishes, or you can make thing finger puppets to recite your favorite part of his/her stories. Visit our Facebook and Pinterest for more ideas!
Read the world around you
Expose your child to variety of books, expanding his/her horizons. You can choose books that discuss various cities within the United States, such as Night-Night Pittsburgh, All Aboard! Washington D.C. and New York: A Book of Colors. You can introduce books from around the world, such as Babies Around the World, My Little Cities: Paris and London: A Book of Opposites. You can also choose bilingual books such as Bilingual Bright Colors (Arabic/English Edition) and Mi Primer Libro del Cuerpo/My First Body Book (Spanish/English Edition).
Point out billboards, posters and street signs. Teach your child to recognize his/her name. Print it on your toddler’s bedroom door and label it on his/her items of clothing. Ask your toddler to pick out words that have the same letter as your child’s name.
Encourage your toddler to make a grocery list. Your child can scribble the list, or he/she can prepare a list with pictures of the food items that he/she thinks you should buy. For example, “In addition to apples, what other fruit would you like us to buy at the supermarket?” At the store, have your toddler find the food items on the list and pass them to you.
One of the best ways to ensure that your little one grows up to be an avid reader is to have lots of books around your house. In addition to the books you own, take advantage of those you can borrow from your local library. Libraries also offer fun activities for your little ones. We encourage you to look at the monthly calendar for Erie County and see how the library holds story times for babies and toddlers such as Baby Bounce and Toddler Time. Barnes and Nobles also offers story time every Saturday morning at 11am. Take advantage of these opportune moments for your child to develop his/her literacy, motor and social skills.
Then there is Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a charity that mails free books every month to children from birth to Kindergarten, that has just given away it’s 100 millionth book this very month. If you are interested in signing up to this charity, make sure you speak to your service coordinator about it.
We hope you have learned how important literacy development is for little ones, helping them thrive in their overall development. We encourage you to help your toddler develop these literacy skills by listening and singing to rhyming stories and songs, reading books, understanding the world around them and then engaging in play activities that reinforce these essential life lessons.