Ages and Stages: Watch Your Child’s Speech and Language Grow: Language and Literacy
Birth to 12 months – Exposing children to books
- Choose books that children can manipulate and explore. Some samples include cloth, plastic or cardboard boxes, books with holes, shapes, textures, wheels, buttons.
- Examples: “Toes, Ears and Nose” (a lift the flap book) by Marion Dane Bauer, “Mirror Me” (A Mirror book) by Baby Einstein
12 to 18 Months – Building on children’s fascination with books
- Choose books that children can hold, turn the pages and play with such as interactive board books with flaps and pop-ups
- Choose books that have clear, colourful pictures with little print
- Choose books on familiar topics that can be related to a child’s own experience
- Examples: “Spot’s First Walk” by Eric Hill; “Shopping Trip” by Helen Oxenbury, ‘Moonbear’s Books” by Frank Asch.
18 to 24 Months – Using books to stimulate and satisfy children’s curiosity
- Choose books that have complex collections of pictures based on themes
- Choose books that have repetitive text that is predictable and rhythmical
- Choose books that have short stories with a simple plot, and only a few characters
- Examples: “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?” by Bill Martin Jr./Eric Carle, “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle
2 to 5 years – Encouraging language learning when reading to children
- Choose books that have more advanced topics and imaginary themes
- Choose books that have more detailed and complex stories such as fairy tales
- Choose books that are fictional as well as non-fiction
- Examples: “Corduroy” by Don Freeman; “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.” By Judith Viorst; “Sheep in a Jeep” by Nancy Shaw, “John Burningham’s ABC” by John Burningham
How parents can help
- Have a regular reading time and place, ensuring you and your child are comfortable, relaxed and uninterrupted
- Introduce the book in an interesting way – e.g. if it is about cats, show it and ask “What do you think this book is about?”
- You don’t have to read all the words – sometimes it is more fun to talk about the pictures and tell the story in your own words
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