Yes, yes, YES! Read to your newborn!
Its never, ever too early to start reading to baby.
Even though she won’t understand your words, reading is a powerful tool for connecting parent and child. Simply the sound of your voice has a positive impact on baby. Not only that, but books, especially ones created for small kiddos, have rhythms and cadences that are soothing and help baby develop her listening skills.
There are many studies that show speaking to infants helps their growth and development. While there are many ways to do this, the perfect way to start is with a good book! Some of these said studies have shown that kids who were read to at an early age have a better vocabulary and even increased math skills.
Here are some great ways to make the most of story time with your baby
- One important component of reading to children is engaging with them throughout the story. While reading the words directly off the page is good, talking about what you’re reading and seeing is great! “Look at that pink ball, you have a yellow ball too!” or “How many hippos are there? Let’s count! 1, 2, 3, 4, 5! 5 hippos!”
- Another way to enhance the benefits when you read to your newborn is to stay close. Snuggling and cuddling boost the experience for everyone, and is bound to increase your bond with baby.
- Reading books is also visually stimulating even for young babies. Of course, newborns will benefit most black and white images with a lot of contrast to help them focus. However, as baby grows, all quality books for young children will introduce baby to colors, shapes, letters, and numbers that help them relate to the world around them.
- Repetition is important for young ears. Books on repeat may start to get old for you, but it will help baby build skills when what they hear begins to become familiar.
- That being said, don’t feel like you can only read board books with silly little rhymes. You can read anything to baby- they will still benefit from listening to you read a magazine, a novel, even work emails you need to catch up on. You can make anything story time
- Finally, when you read to your newborn you help to show them that reading is not only fun but an important part of life. Raising readers starts from the very beginning!