Reading to your baby

Some parents read aloud to their baby in the NICU. It is the sound of the parent’s voice and not the subject matter that is important, so you can read anything you like. The nurses at KEMH told me about one father who read his premature son “The Silence of the Lambs”! My husband and I preferred to sing to Talia, and only started reading to her some months after she came home.Here are some of the things I love about reading to my baby.

- Board books . Wow, such a big change since I was a kid. Now you can safely leave books at floor level without the risk of them being torn to shreds because your child loves the sound of ripping paper. (Use junk mail for that activity!)

- Books with flaps, textures and mirrors . Even more wow! Talia cannot get enough of looking under flaps, putting her fingers through holes, touching squishy/fluffy/scratchy things and (best of all) looking at her own reflection.

- Making up new words . Some books just have too many words per page, especially for a baby who likes turning the pages quickly. It’s good to have “the short version”, especially if you’ve read that particular book three times today.

- Finding things in the pictures . Some days the illustrations are more fun than the story line. Point out the mouse, the boat, the sun, the flower, etc in the background. When your child is slightly older you can ask them to find these items for you.

- Silly noises . Reading to a child gives you complete freedom to make as many silly animal noises and other sound effects as you like. So mooo, pop, bang, miaow, grrrr, brrroom, woof, oink, squeak and boo to your heart’s content. You know you want to!

- Opportunities for karaoke . Are you on a page with a star? Launch into Twinke Twinkle. Is that a picture of a frog? Start singing “Glug glug went the little green frog”. Your baby will love it. Well, mine does anyway. If you’re in WA and you received a copy of Baby Ways from your local library or child health nurse, you can sing the entire book to the tune of Here we go Round the Mulberry Bush.

I’m listing some of Talia’s favourite books on Talia’s Bookshelf - this will be updated as time goes by.

Some other links you might like:

Mem Fox’s Read Aloud Commandments

“Reading with babies”