What Babies Like In Books

What Babies Like In Books (0 - 2 Years of Age)

• Board books with photos of babies

• Books with bold, clear pictures of familiar items in baby's world

• Books with rhythm and repetition

• Books with textures or touch-and-feel books

• Books with animal sounds

• Lullaby books

For Print Motivation:

• Touch-and-Feel Books engage multiple senses, making read-aloud time more interactive and more fun!

• Photo Books with large clear images of baby faces because babies love to look at other babies! This is a great way to help them focus on the page.

• Activity or Object Books that are primarily lists make it easy to read as many or as few pages as hold a baby's interest, keeping storytime a positive experience.

For Phonological Awareness:

• Song Books that contain simple, familiar songs are a great way to help them hear the smaller sounds in words.

• Noise Books that celebrate noises all around give babies practice in listening to the sounds of our spoken language.

• Rhyming Books with one rhyme per book are best for babies. Reading Mother Goose books and sharing poetry with children are some of the best ways to build phonological awareness skills.

For Vocabulary:

• Word Books offer great opportunities for describing objects to babies adding more words to their vocabularies.

• Hearing Words Repeated in context is one way babies learn new words.

• Song Books that list or name objects (Head Shoulders Knees and Toes or Old MacDonald Had a Farm) are one way to introduce new words to babies.

For Narrative Skills:

• Short and Simple stories about daily routines begin to introduce young listeners to how stories work.

• Photo Books of objects surrounded by plenty of white space allow children to focus on one item while you describe it.

• Question and Answer Books help introduce babies into the patterns of spoken language.
  

For Print Awareness:

• Cloth Books allow even the youngest babies to explore books and learn how they work.

• Large Print Books make it easy to point to the text on the page as you read, which helps babies begin to learn that print carries meaning.

• Repeated Words, Word Bubbles, or Words Incorporated into the Illustrations also make it easy to point to the text on the page as you read.

For Letter Knowledge:

• ABC Books for babies and young toddlers should have very simple letter shapes to minimize distractions.

• Shape Books will help young toddlers establish a strong foundation in shape recognition.

• Opposite Books will start building their ability to tell shapes and later letters apart.