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Parenting
Babies and Books
Although babies interact with books
differently than do older children, even very young babies like books
and engage with them in remarkable ways. Judith Schickedanz, Professor
of Education at Boston University has compiled some suggestions for
parents and caregivers. Suggestions for Reading to the Baby:
Birth to 3 Months
At this early stage, a book must be something interesting for a baby
to look at. The ideal book suggested is the one that has simple and
large pictures or designs against a contrasting background. Stiff
cardboard books that can stand up, are a good choice.
An infant at this age could be placed prone on the floor for short
periods while awake, a book can be opened wide and placed at a
comfortable viewing distance.
4 to 6 Months
Cloth and vinyl books are a good choice for this period because they
are light weight and compress when babies' hands grasp them. In
addition, cloth and vinyl books do not disintegrate when they become
wet. They are bound to get wet when a baby will put a book in his/her
mouth several times. Another advantage is that these type of books can
be washed.
Now that the baby can hold his/her head up, caregiver's hands are free
to hold both the baby and a book.
7 to 9 Months
During this period, babies begin to manipulate a book to look at
its pages. Crushing, ripping, and the like begin around 8 months of
age. Thus a special type of cardboard book, known as a board or block
book is fairly indestructible and easy for infants to handle. During
this stage, cloth and vinyl books are not appropriate as they are so
soft, that infants find it difficult to wedge a finger between the
pages.
"Reading" a book to a baby at this age consists of labeling
the pictures.
9 to 12 Months
At this time, the book's contents, rather than its physical
characteristics begin to capture a baby's attention. They now begin to
recognize, understand and relate objects and events in the world.
Books with pictures of familiar actions and objects are the ones,
babies usually like best. Cardboard books continue to be easy for
children to manipulate because their pages turn easily. They must be
selected carefully with respect to the content.
The language format used when sharing a book with a child this age
often follows a four-part sequence:
- Get the baby's attention. For
example, say "Look" or "Oh, look at that!"
- Ask the baby a labeling question.
For example, ask "What's that?" or "What does
that do?"
- Wait for a baby to respond or if
necessary provide the answer yourself.
- Provide feedback. Typically say
something like "yes" and then give the answer in a
well-articulated form.
12 to 18 Months
During this age, children enjoy books with pictures of familiar
characters (animals, little children like themselves, adults in
familiar roles), objects and events. Theme books, the most suitable to
read to a child this age, contain a series of related pages with
pictures and a few words.
At this age, children still like pictures in books to be named. They
will repeat what adult says, although their articulation of words will
not be very accurate. Now they may be willing to listen to quite a lot
of descriptive talk about the objects and events pictured in the
books.
Very young children differ greatly in
all aspects of behavior, book behavior is no exception. Some babies
may site quietly in a lap while being read to, other babies may
struggle down from laps. How a particular baby interacts with a
particular book at a particular time, depends on the baby's style of
interacting with the world in general, on the baby's past book-playing
and book-reading experiences, on the characteristics of the book at
hand and on the general level of development.
–
Kamna Raj
August 24, 2000
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