How to Prepare Your Baby to Start Learning to Read

Many parents are looking for a way to make learning to read easy and fun for their children.  Here are a number of different ideas to help you establish interest in reading in your child and nurture their future literary development.

Key factors in Your Baby’s Development

There are three key factors to consider when you begin to teach your child to read.  Your daily routines, your personal bond with your child, and your child’s environment all play a vital role in your child’s development.  It is important to consider that your child will develop steadily so you can establish the routines early, but you should not push your child too hard.  Let them learn to read at their own pace so that they don’t begin feeling stressed and anxious about learning.

As your baby develops, he or she will become more attuned to the stimuli in their surroundings, and this will allow them to remember certain things that you teach them.

For example, at the age of five months, babies can remember something that they have seen for two weeks.  At 8 months, they can remember something that they have heard for two weeks, and then one year later, they will have developed so much more that their capabilities will have grown tremendously.  It is all about positioning their learning at the proper stages of development so that you can promote their abilities without overwhelming them with information that they cannot yet process.

Create a Reading Routine Early

Establishing a reading routine will help you engage your child and make them more interested in learning.  It is a proven fact that if your child sees you doing something, they will want to mimic your behavior, and you can use this to your advantage by creating solid repetition reading to your child as frequently as you see fit.

Daily reading seems to be the most beneficial to developing infants and toddlers, but you can create any routine to encourage more attentiveness and responsiveness in your baby.  At one year of age, your child will enjoy it when you read their favorite book, and they will usually prefer repetition as they become familiar with a specific book or theme.

Create a Loving Atmosphere When You Read to Your Child

Your baby’s brain is a sponge, and they are usually quite willing to learn.  You should acknowledge the way that your child reacts to certain stimuli so that you can get a better idea of their likes and dislikes.  This will help you strengthen your bond and promote an active, healthy environment so that your baby can enjoy learning how to read.

Many experts have observed that children’s feelings about reading are established very early on in life, and it can affect how they feel about reading later.  So, if you can read or sing to your child in your arms and create a loving, warm atmosphere, they will associate that with reading and be more willing to learn in the future.

Give Your Baby Plenty of Books From a Young Age

The environment that you create will also play a role in how your baby reacts to reading.  If you present them with books at a young age, even before they know what reading is, then this can promote a much stronger interest in reading.  You can also encourage your children to explore new books by giving them a selection of different materials that they can look at and read from an early age. 

Take your infant to the bookstore or library and let him or her see you choosing their books from the children’s section.  Getting your child a library card as soon as they are old enough to start reading is a great decision and will foster a lifelong love of libraries if you associate getting new books out with a feeling of excitement and anticipation.

All of these factors will heavily influence how your child responds to reading, and by promoting a loving environment, a strong personal bond, and establishing a healthy reading routine, you can make teaching your baby to read much more fulfilling for both of you.