Reading books with your child is not only good for your relationship, it also means you are giving your child a good start in education. Here, we give you lots of useful tips to make reading with your child fun.

Taking the time to enjoy books and reading with your child can be wonderful for both of you. It’s a great way to develop your child’s language skills and vocabulary, and also gives you a chance to spend time together, discovering favourite books and rhymes and having a lot of fun at the same time.

By reading with your child, you are also getting them to think about new ideas, encouraging them to be curious and extending their experiences of the world around them.  Reading with your child should be fun, but it can fill many parents with fear and dread for a number of reasons. For example, if you have unpleasant memories of school or if you struggle with reading yourself. The great thing about reading with your child is that it can help you overcome these challenges as well as developing your child’s learning.

When to start

You can start reading to your child in the first weeks of their life. Babies love the sound of your voice and research has shown that even very young babies recognise and prefer their parents’ voices to those of other people. By introducing your child to words and language, you’re providing them with the key tools for learning to talk. Books for babies are very simple, focusing on texture, sound, colour and shapes. These will also fascinate your baby and help them begin their voyage of discovery.

Top tips for reading with your child:

• Make it fun – for you and your child. You can try funny voices, raising and lowering your voice, and experimenting with sound effects.
• Talk about the book and its pictures, even if you think your baby or child doesn’t understand. For example, if you see a picture of a dog, talk about a dog you know.
• Encourage your child to join in with the story – guessing what happens next, repeating words or phrases, or asking and answering questions.
• Give your child a chance to respond to you.
• Let your child hold the book and turn the pages.
• Children love to hear their favourite stories again and again. Repetition helps children to understand and remember the language they hear.
• Don’t be disappointed if your child isn’t interested – try again later.
• Find a quiet place and turn the TV off – you don’t want any distractions.
• Try to read to your child at the same time every day. Bedtime is a great time to share a story.
• Keep books in your bag. A long wait at the doctor’s surgery or at the dentist can be a great time to share a book.
• Run your finger along the words as you read – this will help your child to make the connection between the words they hear and the words they can see.
• Young children often like to pretend to read by making up the story themselves. This is a great start.
• Encourage your friends and relatives to read with your child. Young children particularly like it when older siblings or cousins read to them.
  

How to choose a book:

Let your child choose a book themselves – they are more likely to enjoy reading it. A good starting point is to find books that match your child’s interests such as animals, sports or tractors.

Board books, cloth books, bath books, pop-ups and lift-the-flaps are great for babies and toddlers.
Books about everyday events such as going to the shops or visiting a friend can be a great opportunity to talk with your child about their own experiences.

Visiting the library

Your local library or toy library is a great place to find books for your child. Babies can join the local library from birth. It’s free to join and you don’t need to worry if the books get damaged - libraries understand that this sometimes happens. You can ask the librarian to suggest books for your child. Most libraries also have weekly storytelling sessions for under-fives.

The benefits

By reading regularly to your child, you are:

• Stimulating their imagination.
• Developing their understanding of how language works.
• Helping them to discover the joys of reading.
• Strengthening your relationship with your child.
• Giving them a great start in education.
  

Learning together

If you are worried about your own reading or writing skills, now is a great time for you to improve them. You can get a lot of support to help develop your skills and learn new ones. A new initiative, launched on World Book Day (2 March 2006), will provide a great opportunity for you to try a series of books called Quick Reads. Top authors have written the 12 Quick Reads, especially for adults who are developing their reading skills. You can buy the books from bookshops and libraries at £2.99 each. A further ten Quick Reads will be published in May for Adult Learners’ Week. The BBC is also running a campaign called RaW (Reading and Writing) to support adult readers through reading groups, storytelling sessions, online resources and a coaching phone line.

Useful websites

Basic Skills Agency   
www.basic-skills.co.uk

BBC RaW   
www.bbc.co.uk/raw

Bookstart   
www.bookstart.co.uk

Booktrust   
www.booktrust.org.uk

Learndirect   
www.learndirect.co.uk

Move On   
www.move-on.org.uk

National Literacy Trust   
www.literacytrust.org.uk

NIACE   
www.niace.org.uk

Talk To Your Baby   
www.literacytrust.org.uk/talktoyourbaby

Further information

footsteps family books
Members of footsteps, our new free parents’ club (see page 11), can now take full advantage of our collaboration with Dorling Kindersley and Ladybird and get an exclusive 20% discount on books from the footsteps family book catalogue. The catalogue has a range of attractive, popular books with practical help for parents on a range of subjects such as nutrition and child development. The books also aim to help young readers to learn through play.

To view the full range, go to www.pre-school.org.uk/publications .

For a catalogue contact our Information Service team on tel: 020 7697 2500 or email: This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it