YB BOOKS
Images: Gallo Images/Getty Images64 | JULY & AUGUST 2019
IN AND AMONGST all the other things
we need to take care of as parents
of babies, reading often falls by the
wayside. Reading to under-ones – who
pretty much have a limited vocabulary –
can sometimes (often!) be a struggle, and
you can’t help but wonder if there’s any
use to your efforts.
Don’t give up, says Cape Town based
early childhood development specialist
Wilma Tindall, since reading to children
of all ages is good for a variety of
reasons.
WHY CHILDREN SHOULD READ
Asked once how to make children
intelligent, Albert Einstein replied: “If you
want your children to be intelligent read
them fairy tales. If you want them to be
more intelligent, read them more fairy
tales.”
Reading helps children gain new
vocabulary, empathise with others’
feelings and problems, develop an
interest in new subjects and hobbies,
understand the heritage of their own
and other cultures, stimulate cognitive
development, stimulate and expand their
imaginations, and stretch their attention
spans.
Wilma says reading:
- Creates intimacy through the closeness
and undivided attention that you give
your child. - Instils a love for books, stories, words
and sounds in your child. - Helps to develop language as children
IDEAL BOOKS FOR BABIES
UNDER 1:
✓ Board books – books made from thick
cardboard.
✓ Cloth or plastic books.
✓ Touch/feel and/or smell books.
✓ Books with pictures that are large,
bright and quite simple.
✓ Books without too much detail and
little text at first.
✓ Photo albums of your child and her
activities.Reading
to babies
When should you start
reading to your little one?
And which books are
best? We asked an early
childhood development
specialist for advice
need to hear sounds and words and how
words are joined together to make a
sentence before they can begin to speak.- Stimulates curiosity and learning about
the world and things and people in it. - Stimulates the imagination.
- Helps children to think about situations,
emotions and problems and how others
handle these. - Teaches children to feel empathy for
others or other things. - Helps prepare children for school as
it provides book handling and reading
skills (understanding that written words
mean something and can be deciphered).
By about eight months, says Wilma,
children generally have the capacity
to concentrate for short periods and
can spend time on your lap looking at
pictures and listening to you naming
things or saying something very brief
about the pictures.
“It’s not really about a story at this
early stage,” she says. “The value now
is mostly in the loving attention and the
happy time together – the closeness
between the reader and the listener and
the interaction with a bright, clear, simple
picture that’s an introduction to books
and the idea of getting information off a
page. It’s a good routine to begin in any
case. Just keep the sessions short and
fun.”
If your baby is younger than eight
months, and you’re keen to start reading,
Wilma recommends using things you
find in the everyday environment – toys,
bottles, cups, plates, clothes, even human
faces and pets – pointing them out and
naming them. “As your child gets a little
older, a very short sentence about each
object helps with language development,”
she says. “Sounds are fun for children –
so are action rhymes.”WHAT TO READ
Wilma recommends the following authors
for young readers: Dick Bruna (the Miffy
books), Jan Pienkowski (the Meg and
Mog series), Molly Bang, Nick Sharratt,
Nancy Tafuri, Jane Simmons, Eric Hill
(creator of Spot the Dog), Margaret W
Brown and the Ladybird series of picture
books. South African authors the likes of
Jaco Jacobs, Zukiswa Wanner, Beverly
Naidoo and Anita Pouroulis as well as
websites such as nalibali.org, ethnikids.
co.za and http://www.lovereading4kids.
co.uk also have wonderful reading
recommendations for children of every
age – even the very youngest ones.