What to Read to Make a Baby Smart

It’s no secret that reading to your baby is good for her. Reading early on fosters a love of books and stimulates early language development and the beginnings of speech. Reading time becomes a special bonding experience, and babies enjoy the close time with their parents. But what do you read to make your baby smart? Babies have different needs as they grow.

Birth to 3 Months—Anything Goes: When reading to an infant before the age of 3 months, it doesn’t matter what you read! Read the “Wall Street Journal” or “People” magazine—your baby won’t care. Babies not able to follow the plot or action in a book. They are simply listening to your cadence and the rhythm of your voice and enjoying being close.

Board Books: By 4 months of age, your baby will begin to reach for and grasp objects—including books! Use board books with repetitive language structure and bright, meaningful illustrations and pictures. Babies can feel free to put their hands and mouths on these books.

Nursery Rhymes, Melodies and Repetition: As babies grow, they become more responsive to the sounds of language. Reading books with interesting rhythms, melodies and repetition and patterned language are just right for them. Babies love familiar words, and books with phrases that repeat will delight them. Babies are also becoming attuned to facial expressions and features and love if you “act out” your stories with voice inflections and expressions. Young babies also love to see objects they encounter in their daily lives—teddy bears, ducks, beds and dogs are all favorites. Nursery rhymes are great starters since they incorporate all of these ideas.

Baby’s Favorites: As your baby grows, you may find he picks a few favorites. Read them—again and again! Using the same voice each time you read the familiar words will provide the repetition your baby craves. Babies learn from repetition, so while you may be bored, your baby is learning and soaking it all in.

Your Favorites: Read some of your old favorites. What’s most important at this stage is exposure to books, language, words and the special time that comes from reading together. By the time your baby reaches 12 months of age, she may begin to turn pages for you, point out her favorite objects and pictures and even imitate sounds and expressions you’ve made along the way. What is really important is that you’re reading—not necessarily what you’re reading.
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Lara Alspaugh is a freelance writer living in Michigan. She is a Registered Nurse and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing from Michigan State University. Her writing has been found in parenting and fitness magazines nationwide and the Internet, addressing health and fitness as well as wellness concerns of families.

How Does Reading During Pregnancy Increase a Baby’s Intelligence?

A baby’s nerve pathways in the ears and neural system in the brain start developing as early as the twenty-sixth week, which is when the baby will begin responding to sounds and voices regularly. Introducing music and words while your baby is still growing inside of you may increase your baby’s intelligence; many expectant parents can start talking to their babies in the womb, reading to them and playing soothing music to generate a response from their developing brains. Reading provides auditory stimulation for babies’ growing brains and can acclimate children to the sounds of their parents’ voices.

Effects of Reading on Baby’s Intelligence
During the early stages of development, you can train a baby’s brain to recognize words and sounds well before she understands the meaning behind them. A baby developing in the womb can become sensitive to her parents’ sounds and touches; reading aloud provides a soothing sound for baby to tune into while resting and growing.

The tones, voices and sounds that the baby hears during development can provide the foundation for learning new sounds and words after she is born. After delivery, the baby may be more likely to respond positively to the people to whom she “listened” during development. Reading promotes language development, attention development, concentration skills and information synthesis. A baby’s cognitive skills can also be improved with a variety of stimuli; reading represents one way to enhance these important developmental skills.

Best Types of Books to Read During Pregnancy
Even though your baby can’t understand the real meaning behind the words he hears, he can pick up the rhythm and tone of the sentences and will respond to how the mother responds to whatever she reads. Reading thrillers or horror stories can raise stress levels in the pregnant mother, which can trigger an anxiety response in the baby. Selecting soothing, lighthearted and fun reading material is the best way to entertain your baby during pregnancy, and children’s books are a good resource for short stories that may benefit both the mother and the infant. Since babies typically have short attention spans, dividing reading sessions into small segments hold their attention long enough to derive the full benefit from this experience.

How to Teach a Baby to Read Without Spending a Lot of Money

There are several ways to introduce words, sentences and stories into your baby’s life—and do so without spending a lot of money. Creating the right learning environment for your child will encourage him to start recognizing words and letters with ease.

Step 1: Play with coloring books. Many coloring books are actually miniature storybooks that contain words or short sentences. Allowing your infant to color in these books will help him recognize words and letters, and you can read along while he colors so he can start saying the words out loud.

Step 2: Use reading software. Software programs that tell short stories or animated clips with subtitles can help your infant learn new words and practice them in a specific sequence. You can find reading software at your local library for free or purchase it from a store or online.

Step 3: Play reading games online. There are dozens of websites that offer free reading lessons and interactive puzzles that can help your baby recognize sounds and words. Sit in front of the computer with your infant and work through the lessons together as you read out loud or listen to narratives.

Step 4: Join a storytelling session at your local bookstore or library. Follow along with your own copy of the book or just watch the storyteller read directly from a book and highlight different words. This highly stimulating environment can also help your infant develop important social skills.

Step 5: Use bath books. Bath time is an excellent opportunity to do something creative and encourage learning. Bath books are made with soft, waterproof materials and are relatively cheap. The short stories written with oversized words and designed in attractive colors can encourage learning and help your baby understand new words.

Step 6: Download and print reading lessons from the Web. There are hundreds of educational websites and blogs for parents that feature lesson plans and activity pages. You can download and print these to create your own library of reading activities.

Step 7: Watch “Sesame Street” and other television programs such as “Blue’s Clues.” These shows are designed to teach children to identify words, letters and symbols and develop language. Encourage your infant to watch these programs and read along or sing with the characters so that he learns new words.

Tips
Break up the day into different learning activities so your baby has time to absorb and process new information.
Reading out loud will help your infant understand and recognize new words.

Warnings
Take the time to work through each reading level so your child has a chance to master her skills before moving to the next level.
Don’t put reading and learning on “auto pilot” with television and software; play an active role in your infant’s development as often as possible.

Sabah Karimi is an experienced freelance writer who enjoys writing about lifestyle, parenting, and childhood education topics. Sabah runs a web copywriting and marketing consultancy business in Orlando, Florida.

Best Baby Reading Programs

While the way a baby’s brain develops is largely a mystery, even to those who spend their lives studying it, one thing we do know is that a baby’s window of opportunity to learn language opens early in life. Using a baby reading program can facilitate that learning by adding letter and sound recognition and preliminary reading skills to your baby’s repertoire.

• Your Baby Can Read! Dr. Robert Titzer, Ph.D., developed this reading program for babies after researching infant learning and development. His philosophy is based on the idea that we miss the optimal window to teach our children how to read by waiting until kindergarten. He believes the natural window to learn language is between birth and the child’s fifth birthday. Titzer also believes that early reading leads to a greater affinity for reading later in life. A broad range of products support his “Your Baby Can Read!” system.

• Little Reader: Brillbaby.com touts this method, which uses a quick succession of flash cards to focus the baby’s attention. The “Little Reader” method encourages parents to keep it fun while they work with their babies on reading (or memorizing) whole words. As children age, they learn phonetics to sound out words, something they should be able to do by kindergarten, when they can more easily identify letters and sounds.

• Orton, Shichida, Doman, Montessori-Based Method: This reading method also utilizes flash cards. The first category babies learn is the phonic codes of the English language, followed by whole words. This method uses right-brain, left-brain and whole-brain learning strategies. Right-brain learning encourages the baby to learn words on sight while taking advantage of a baby’s photographic memory. Using the whole brain promotes the baby’s long-term learning objectives.

• Hooked on Phonics: This classic phonetic system for teaching reading also has a version for babies entitled, “Discover Reading Baby Edition Deluxe.” This method employs singing and reading to enhance vocabulary and memory skills, excite the imagination and foster a love of reading for the 3- to 18-month-old. The program uses books, songs, rhymes and games.

Lara Alspaugh is a freelance writer living in Michigan. She is a Registered Nurse and holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing from Michigan State University. Her writing has been found in parenting and fitness magazines nationwide and the Internet, addressing health and fitness as well as wellness concerns of families.