Carla Hudson Kam?s son was three and a half when he realized text in books had meaning. ?He was trying to tell me what to say while I was reading to him,? explains Hudson Kam. ?When I told him that wasn?t what the book said, he exclaimed ?Those are WORDS" And they tell you what to SAY"? He hadn?t realized that I didn?t just have the story memorized.?
Hudson Kam?s kid had an advantage?as a professor and Canada research chair in language acquisition at the University of British Columbia, his mom is basically a professional story reader. And thanks to that, she points to the text on the page as she speaks, to encourage kids to have just that kind of revelation.
While any reading you do to your kid is beneficial, adding in a few simple techniques can help kids learn vocabulary faster and even encourage skills like empathy and self-control. Here?s an age-by-age guide to making story time even more enriching: Reading to a baby under a year
Try big kid books: You might not think to read a complex storybook to a newborn, but babies under six months old actually benefit from hearing the kind of books you would read to older kids. ?It helps them hear the rhythm of the language,? says Hudson Kam. ?It trains their ear and makes it a little easier for them to pay attention to longer sentences later.?
Grab their attention: By about six to twelve months, babies start to get interested in books as toys to examine and manipulate. Expose them to cloth or board books with things li...