When Should I Start Reading To My Baby?

TODAY.

That’s the short answer - today. Whatever be their age, if you have a baby, start reading to them today. Essentially, you can and mostly should read books to children right from their birth.

The question really isn’t when should we start reading; the question is, what should be our goal?

Antoine de Saint—Exupery, author of The Little Prince, said something which is a beautiful metaphor for us -

If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.

That is our goal. Reading beautiful stories to children is not intended to teach them how to read, although it naturally does help in doing that. We read to children to kindle within them a longing, a yearning, for the stories, wisdom, knowledge and beauty that flood the pages of these books. Simply put, we do it to make them find joy in reading. And once we have done that, they cannot help but sculpt themselves their journey of becoming lifelong readers to satisfy their own thirst.

How does that journey of bringing alive the reader within them look like? At arth, we’ve identified distinct stages in that journey that we’re glad to share with you.

• Stage 1 - Enjoying parent’s complete attention during storytime
  Infants enjoy being read to only because it gets them their parent’s complete attention. They enjoy listening to the different sounds, and animated movements parents make during this phase. The book is merely a tool that enables us to achieve this goal and spend quality time with our babies.
  Goal - Ensure that children have a joyful time listening to the noises we make
  Age - Birth - 12 months

• Stage 2 - A sensory exploration of books
  During this phase, children slowly start reaching out to feel the book. You will begin to notice actions/movements like - grabbing, kicking, chewing, etc. This is one of the first ways children interact and make sense of the book. To enable this, we mostly use chunky board books, soft fabric-made books, or vinyl bath books during this period, since they are damage-proof.
  Goal - Allowing for the sensory exploration of the books.
  Age - 6-15 months

• Stage 3 - Exploring interactive elements in the book
  In this stage, children start diving into the book and actually interact with the different elements in the book. To enable this, we use books with lots of interactive elements embedded within them, such as flaps, puppets, mirrors, or peepholes. This enriches their interactions and makes their reading time more joyful.
  Goal - Facilitating joyful exploration of interactive elements inside the book.
  Age - 9-18 months

• Stage 4 - Recognising Pictures and Making Connections
  Once children become comfortable with the books and start interacting with them, they begin to recognise different pictures in the books and make connections. For example, they might see a cow in the book and say, “moo.” During this time, they may also start developing a liking for certain books, and you may see them going back to those books again and again like a favourite toy.
  Goal - Actively helping them enrich their vocabulary and make connections.
  Age - 15 - 24 months

• Stage 5 - Listening and paying attention to the sounds made during story reading
  All the stages mentioned above are exploration stages where children interact with the book but do not necessarily listen to the entire story. During this stage, their attention span and enthusiasm gradually increase, and they sit for a longer duration to listen to the story.
  Goal - To make storytime immensely fun and engaging by using our voices, humour, and other props to help children experience a joyful reading time and enable them to engage for longer.
  Age - 15 - 30 months

• Stage 6 - From listening to understanding and comprehension
  In this stage, children not only listen to the stories but also understand, comprehend, and remember stories. Slowly, they even progress to being able to predict the storyline and can answer higher-order thinking questions
  Goal - To enhance their comprehension skills, increase vocabulary, strengthen visual connection pathways, and facilitate connection making and critical thinking, and most of all, have a beautiful reading time!
  Age - 18 months +

The age range mentioned above is just indicative and not set in stone. Children develop at their own pace, and it is absolutely fine. You might have a 15-month-old who already loves books and another 3 years old who still hasn’t been exposed to reading aloud. Both will have their own unique journey. They still, more or less, will go through similar stages. The above stages are not meant to be prescriptions to be followed. Instead, they are meant to give you a lens to observe where your children are so that we can respond to them accordingly.

Mark Twain had said something profound. Mark said -

The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.

I share this because there are multiple ways of teaching children how to read, which will get them to pick up the necessary reading skills. You’ll see them being able to read. But many of these methods will take away their desire of reading and make children run away from books, which is as good as them not learning how to read. But when we shift our focus to make them fall in love with stories and yearn to read them, we make them embark on a journey to become lifelong readers, and nothing is more powerful than that.

Read our blog to find out more information on selecting good books for your baby and techniques that’ll help you become better at reading books to your child and facilitate better comprehension.