Reading with your babyYou can help your child to a brighter future by simply reading to them. We look at why reading is so important and how different genres have different benefits.
How many of us can remember the joy of being read to as a child? The closeness of one-to-one attention, the thrills of our imagination as our favourite stories leapt from the page into our minds. There's nothing quite like reading, as Kim Pickin, of the Oxford Story Museum, explains: 'Stories help to develop children's language and reasoning, empathy and imagination. They help children make sense of the world. They help them think, communicate and relate to others. They encourage children to read. They are something different generations can enjoy together.' Kim cites a study carried out eight years ago which found that 'enjoyment of reading has a greater impact on educational attainment than any other factor, including parental education and income'. A staggering four-fifths of children aged five to 16 have a telly in their bedroomUnfortunately, the rise in popularity of digital entertainment has meant that fewer children are being read to these days. A staggering four-fifths of children aged five to 16 have a telly in their bedroom and recent research has shown that school children have poorer language and relationship skills than ever before. This not only affects their reading capability but also their behaviour and achievement in other key areas. You may think that reading can only be done when your baby is old enough to understand a few words. However, as Bookstart founder Wendy Cooling comments, it is never to early to start: '...some [people] even believe that reading aloud before birth helps the development of a calm personality and a sense of rhythm. Sharing books after birth is seldom a quiet activity, as babies will gurgle and join in with the reading well before they begin to talk, responding to the voice of the adult who loves them rather than to the content of the book... Rhythmic language, rhyme and onomatopoeic words that you can almost taste speak to babies and help them develop an ear for language that will lead them into reading as they get older. Listen and watch Wendy Cooling talk about making storytime special 'We do it because we love it.... Take one parent, one child and one pile of books; result: total pleasure.'However, don't just view book time as an opportunity to increase your baby's brain power; reading is a bonding experience and should be enjoyed, not endured.' Popular children's author Julia Donaldson stresses this in her introduction to The Ultimate First Book Guide: '...shared reading doubtless does confer all sorts of benefits but, as I hope most of you... agree, that's not why we do it. We do it because we love it.... Take one parent, one child and one pile of books; result: total pleasure.'
Nursery rhymes are often our first introduction to poetry and rhyming verse. Since children respond well to rhythm and sound, reading nursery rhymes is a fun and easy way to develop their language skills and their ear for language. Author and illustrator Ian Beck explains why. 'Nursery rhymes and lullabies... are part of a long oral tradition, passed on from parent to baby, and a vital ingredient of all our infancies. We first hear them from our parents or our grandparents, or from nursery teachers, and we absorb them... The word games, the alliterations and sprung rhythms, the sheer fun and fascination of those mysterious little stories and characters... or of their dream-like images... are impossible to better and it would be difficult to overemphasise their importance. They remain a bedrock for the imagination and for the development of literacy in childhood... A vital part of every child's bookshelf should be a good, comprehensive collection of nursery rhymes and lullabies.' Top-notch nursery-rhyme collections Another sub-category of children's books is that of 'concept books' which Nikki Gamble, associate consultant at the Institute of Education, describes as: 'books designed to help young children learn classes of objects such as "animals", or ideas such as "opposites" and to recognise their defining characteristics.' The themes these books cover vary widely, from colour and shapes to telling the time or recognising the alphabet.
Think back to your childhood and chances are you had a favourite character in a book or series of books that you read; it could have been Paddington Bear or Winnie the Pooh and his friends. By loving a particular character in a book, a child can often be easily encouraged to engage with literature, especially if they can, one day, enjoy reading the stories themselves. Their importance to a child's sense of well-being too cannot be underestimated, as Wendy Cooling confirms, 'These characters become a part of life and their very familiarity offers real comfort in a busy, sometimes impossible to understand world.' If your child doesn't appear to be as interested as you'd hoped in books, try not to make an issue out of it. Some are more reluctant than others but it doesn't mean that they eventually won't catch the reading bug! There are tactics you can try to get them engaged in a story and the best of these, certainly from an early age, is reading novelty books together. These are books that have something unusual about them - perhaps flaps that your child has to lift to see what's underneath or wheels to turn or tags to pull. By offering an element of surprise they awakene curiosity and are great for reluctant readers, too. Novelty books to get in a flap about! Reading is essentially a pleasure but there are times in life when it can provide some relief and solace. When a child has to deal with a stressful event such as the death of a family member or pet, a trip to the doctor's or dentist's, or their first day at school, a book can help them come to terms with what is happening and make it seem less frightening. Lindsey Fraser, national co-ordinator of Read Together, explains 'Children who have explored such difficult emotional areas within the safety of words and pictures in a book can draw on the resulting understanding to inform their own reactions when specific situations arise.' Books to help them cope It's all very well reading traditional fairy tales to your child and letting them absorb the morals they promote. However, what if your child starts to get unhelpful ideas in their head that all princesses must have long hair, and that their role in life is to be saved by a prince? Or alternatively that men are the doers and fixers in the house? Books can help to combat some of the very old-fashioned ideas that still influence our child's way of thinking. Strong female characters who show courage and determination against adversity are seen in such books as The Snow Queen, The Magic Paintbrush and in the feisty heroine in Babette Cole's Princess Smartypants, while Simon Bartram's funny picture book Man on the Moon explored the life of Bob - the man who has to keep the moon spic and span! Once you've got a child interested in books you probably won't have to work very hard to keep them reaching for their bookshelves. However, traditionally it has been said that boys can be harder to engage than girls, perhaps because biologically they tend to develop the right side of their brain - responsible for learning languages - at a slower pace than girls. Editor of the Ultimate Book Guide Leonie Flynn thinks that boys can be as avid readers as girls but it might need a little extra effort. Here are her tips:
We'd like to thank A&C Black for their help with this feature. All quotes were taken from The Ultimate First Book Guide published by A&C Black. Editors Daniel Hahn, Leonie Flynn and Susan Reuben. www.ultimatebookguide.com Where to next?
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Books
from birth:
Thought-provoking
themes in books 
Cracking
character series 
Books
for breaking stereotypes 
