Reading to your child every day is the best single way to ensure that he or she develops a lifelong love for reading. The key is to introduce your child to books that are developmentally appropriate and to share your love of reading through daily reading together. This creates a lasting bond and a time you will both cherish.
The love of books can begin in the first year of life. Babies love to sit on the lap of someone they love and look together with them at pictures in a book. At first, they are simply content to hear the sound of their loved one’s voice telling them about what they see. The baby responds with smiles, gaze at the adult, and then a reach for the book.
The best books for babies are made of cloth or vinyl and include large realistic photographs of familiar objects, animals, or people. As babies get old enough to imitate their favorite adult, they will attempt to turn the pages, sometimes forward and sometimes back. This is okay. The baby is learning how books work. The adult should point at pictures and name them. The baby will eventually point too, make a sound that may or may not resemble the name for the picture, and then look at the adult for reassurance. This back and forth interaction about the content of the book is the beginning of understanding that the picture symbols on the page can stand for objects in real life.
