Baby’s First Year
It’s never too early to begin – babies start learning about language the moment they are born, they hear you talking to them and soon respond.
Start with nursery rhymes and songs, play rhymes, Mother Goose rhymes and song books. Nursery rhymes can be told to babies from birth. Don’t worry if they don’t make sense, they offer an experience to the senses rather than to the mind and they provide a feeling for language.
Introduce babies to board books. Good books for babies should:
- have sturdy pages;
- be small for little hands to hold;
- be tactile or have another attention grabber like a mirror;
- have photographs or baby faces or bright colourful pictures;
- have clear uncluttered pages to encourage babies to focus their eyes on pictures; and
- few words.
From Around 15 months of Age
During these early years, children will benefit from hearing, looking at and handling lots of different books. Borrowing books from the library enables you to try a variety of books. Children will quickly develop favourite titles and they will want these read again and again! If possible, buy paperback copies of favourite titles and don’t worry too much about them getting grubby and worn. They are much-loved friends! Leave books within your toddler’s reach so that they can initiate storytime.
From around 15 months of age, a child can appreciate a simple story. Story books have a narrative or plot and some sort of climax or resolution. These require considerable mental expertise and will stretch the one to two year old. Some favourite examples of this style of book are the Mr Gumpy books by John Burningham, The tiger who came to tea, by Judith Kerr, or Rosie’s walk by Pat Hutchins. These books will allow children to predict what will happen next and have a satisfying conclusion.
Cumulative stories or those that use repetition will encourage interaction with your child. Try reading The Elephant and the Bad baby by Elfrida Vipont or The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.
Children will enjoy books about real life situations that they can relate to and you can also begin to introduce theme and concept books to toddlers in their second year. These are less demanding than books that depict unconnected objects.
From Two to Three Years of Age
Around the age of two to three years, children are generally ready to advance to stories about unfamiliar happenings and situations. Try reading Where the wild things are by Maurice Sendak.
By the time a child is approaching three years of age, they should have the language skills and conceptual development to cope with the delights and excitement of imaginary adventures such as those found in traditional fairy tales. The best of these have a rollicking quality that keeps the horror at bay. Paul Galdone’s version of The three little pigs, The three Billy Goats Gruff and others are wonderful retellings with clear illustrations.
Books can assume different roles for different children and children of the same age and developmental level can have very different feelings about and reactions to the same book. What will amuse? What will terrify? – try with care to find your way through the maze.
Books are a great way to teach and reassure children about unfamiliar situations and children in their third year will start to relate their real life experiences to things they have seen in books.
Remember, children, like adults, are individuals. They develop different tastes and interests and these should be taken into consideration when choosing books to read. When matching a child with a book, it is the child’s individual state of development, not their chronological age, which is most important.
From Four to Eight Years of Age
Books for this age range should appeal to children who are just starting to read for themselves, as well as being suitable to read aloud. The stories should be more involved and interesting, although engaging pictures are still very important - they capture a child's imagination. Many stories for this age group have happy endings. This is important if they're being read at bedtime, as a child should go to sleep feeling relaxed and reassured.
From Eight Years On
Don't Stop! As children become more confident readers, they may want to read the books themselves. Books with frequent chapter breaks are ideal. They provide a perfect place to pause without interrupting the story too much - but often end on a cliffhanger so the reader can't wait to return to it the following night. Ideal stories for this age group are thrilling and exciting - but not too scary - and should challenge and surprise the reader, keeping their interest right up to the final page.
Join Your Local Public Library
Joining your local public library and borrowing books, magazines DVDs, CDs, CD ROMs and more is free. Children can join at birth and the library has hundreds of books for readers of all ages. Contact your local library to ask for more details.