Books for Babies: Why We Love Reading from the Beginning
One of the things we love to encourage families to do is to find a reading routine that works for them and their baby, right from the start! We truly love sharing quality book finds, whether it’s a fun seasonal book or one that helps with encouraging sounds and eventually words — it’s definitely our thing!
This blog post will explain why reading is so important at this early age as well as what we look for when it comes to books for babies.
It may seem like books are only intriguing to your child once they’ve reached toddlerhood, but there are actually really amazing benefits to reading to your baby:
CONNECTION & BONDING
We love to read at all times of the day but there’s something really special about those pre-bedtime cuddles while we read books with our kids. For babies, it’s a great opportunity to spend intentional time with a caregiver. They love to hear your voice, even if it seems like they aren’t yet able to follow along. We know that this connection leads to communication and your child is learning language through this special time with you.
Related: 5 ways reading supports babies’ social emotional learning
EARLY LITERACY SKILLS
Learning to read starts loooong before you might think! Exposure to literacy artifacts (books, toys with print, magazines, etc.) is key to helping children develop an awareness of print and the understanding of literacy. Engaging in shared book reading has so many benefits! As you point to pictures, your baby eventually learns that words and pictures are linked and have meaning. They’re learning to associate words with what they’re experiencing— which is critical for building language skills.
As you turn pages, you’re modeling the manner that books are read (in English: from left to right, top to bottom). All of these are precursors to eventual reading and writing skills!
LANGUAGE EXPOSURE
Reading with your baby exposes them to so many vocabulary words they likely aren’t encountering in their typical day. Books are often rich with thematic language, opening up entirely new worlds—rainforests, outer space, talking animals—books cover it all! The variety of words they hear (location words, labels, adjectives, action words, etc.) helps support their language and brain development!
GESTURES AND SOUNDS
Before your baby is able to produce words and sentences, they are able to vocalize sounds and use gestures. Reading together provides lots of opportunities to model, model, model and then allow your child the opportunity to do the same. Plus, it makes book reading even more fun!
SENSORY EXPERIENCES:
Babies use their senses to make sense of the world! Books are a great way to encourage this learning. Vision is stimulated as they look at different pictures and scenes. Reading aloud allows your baby to explore the sense of hearing and sound variations (reading loud vs. quiet, quick vs. slow, the rise and fall of intonation). In addition to seeing pictures and hearing words, there’s also the opportunity to incorporate touch (turning pages, lifting flaps, feeling different textures).
LAYING A FOUNDATION:
Reading is a skill your child will use for their entire life! We firmly believe that books are beneficial for all ages and it’s never too early (or too late) to start incorporating books into your rhythms at home.
Click here to shop our favorite books for babies! If you’re able to support local bookstores, you can find these titles via our Bookshop as well.
TYPES OF BOOKS WE LOVE FOR BABIES
High Contrast: These books are typically black and white and are great especially for newborns-4 months old! High contrast books provide amazing visual stimulation at this age because babies’ depth perception and color vision are still developing. The high contrast images allow your baby to look at the image a bit longer, holding their attention (which is imperative for language learning).
Lift-the-Flap: We wrote a whole post on flap books here but we love how interactive these books are! Lift-the-flap books provide lots of opportunities for communication and a great way to get your little ones engaged in book reading.
Touch and Feel: As we mentioned before, babies learn about the world around them through their senses. One of these senses is touch. Touch and feel books provide a way for your baby to explore a variety of textures and are a great way to help them make connections about their world. You can say things like: “This dinosaur IS bumpy, just like your red ball!” or “The leaf is smooth and silky, like your blankie.” Touch and feel books often serve as a toy at this early age.
Rhythmic in Nature: Early literacy skills begin with listening! These kinds of books sloooow language down, emphasize key words, and really help your baby tune in to the language. Books with this melodic tone will be helpful in eventually discriminating rhymes (a necessary phonological skill for reading and writing) and manipulating the parts of language–PLUS they are just fun to read!
Shop our favorites
We hope this post helps you understand (even more) the importance of reading with your baby, from the beginning! Encouraging a love of books will serve your child as they grow and develop. We hope you feel empowered to read to your littlest ones as you are able. We’ve listed some of our favorite books for babies here on Amazon and Bookshop.
Happy reading, friends!
Katie + Carly
Related: How reading and books teach babies to talk
*There are affiliate links in this post, which means we may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links.
SUPPORT YOUR BABY’S DEVELOPMENT: RIGHT FROM THE START
If you’re feeling unsure of where to really start, we get it! Our hope is to help you feel confident to support your baby’s development.
That’s exactly why we’ve created the TalkBaby course. We’ll help you to sing, read, and encourage first words, right from the start. Our goal is to teach you to support your baby’s growth and learning and we’ll walk with you through it.