Encouraging just-turned-1 year old to 'read'/ enjoy being read to

[LeviStubbsTears]

Dear all,

Any tips for encouraging baby (nearly toddling!) to enjoy being read to/ even exploring picture books together? My dd is very active and mobile and likes exploring objects, but she doesn't have the patience to be read to, and tries to shut most books when I try to read them with her. I try to make the reading lively, and she's a bit better if there are textures to touch, but I would like to read her things other than 'touch' books (which tend to have fairly awful stories/ language etc. if they have either at all), and I've been a bit surprised she doesn't even seem that interested in the pictures, although she can obviously see ok as she can find the texture patches instantly.

I know I'm being over-anxious middle class mum, but would just love to get her interested in language and books, and also this kind of activity with me. (My mum reading to us on her bed in the evening was pretty much the best part of my childhood.) And all the guides, advice etc. is that reading should be a daily activity from much younger than this. I do try to read to her every day, but can't keep her at it for that long (and obviously can't force it!). Any thoughts (or just reassurance) v. welcome.

Thanks a million,
LST

Yes you are bening over anxious (kindly pats hand)

Why not forget reading for now and do action songs and nursery rhymes. these will encourage vocabulary and a love of words and crucially are fun for both of you.

Try with the books every now and again but honestly she is still a baby.

My 18 month old loves books, but she's a baby who will happily sit and draw, build blocks etc too. I started with books she would recognise, like Waybuloo and mickey mouse, plus bed time stories. Maybe if your LO likes any particular shows/animals go for books with them in! X

Agree, very young.

To me she is still a baby not a toddler.

Sounds like she is enjoying books, just not in the usual way.

We have always had books all over the place, our 11 month old has his own low shelf on the book case where his books go but he'll just as often reach for our more sophisticated tomes (clive barker, shirley conran ).
We'll read anything at any time of the day, whatever's at hand. sometimes its not about associating books with settling down time at all,
Ds will often want to get loco with 'We're Going On A Bear Hunt' which isn't a sleepy-time story - and I've sent him to sleep reading the time out guide to Barcelona in an appalling fake spanish accent.

If books are around and available she'll get into them sooner. Good Luck

Yes she's very young. Stick with the 'touchy' books - they are good to get the idea of reading over, iyswim. We've got a lovely one called 'blue worms lost' or something, it's got a little finger puppet on the back page that pokes through a hole on all the other pages, which ds (and dp...) finds hilarious.

You could try an audiobook in the background while you look at pictures. We put the gruffalo on the ipod. Over and over and over again . Now he runs to the speakers as soon as you say Gruffalo.

Do you have a library close? It might be nice to go there especially if they have a nice cozy reading area in the children's section.

Also for when she is a bit older... I sometimes write my own books for my children and scribble little pictures. Nothing that win a literacy award or anything but they like having a story that is about them or something they did.

What rasputin said in the first reply.
Bedtime snuggling is a possibility, but not likely to 'sit and read' at this age. Leave books around and she might have a quick peep occasionally, but babies don't 'follow stories' .

Really, don't worry. Most children this age have a lot of things further up their "to do list" than sitting still while you read to them, they are just getting the hang of moving about and grabbing things, so sitting quietly isn't much fun.

Nursery rhymes are good for encouraging language skills - with or without actions.

And just plain talking to her will help her to appreciate language and be ready for books when the time comes.

If you really want to do something daily (though I don't think it's necessary), find a time when she is quiet anyway - bedtime often works but not for everyone - and keep it short. You can build up longer as her interest increases and she has a longer atention span.

At this age pictures aren't that exciting really - its still just a piece of paper, whether it has words or pictures on it. So don't worry that she can't see them - she can probably see fine but just doesn't find them interesting yet.

True, backforgood - its the enthusiasm and cadence that babies follow when being read to. Our ds knows about books and will go for his favourite (the one with the 'prickly' toothbrush) but not stories though he loves turning the pages so much he often won't let us finish reading the words!

OP, you are not being an 'anxious middle class mum', you're absolutely right to be thinking about this now, not when she's in school or nursery. I'm an Early Years SLT and we know that children need to be introduced to books as early as possible (literally from tiny babies) to support their language and later literacy development.

As others have said, her attention span is very short right now so she is probably a little young to sit and 'be read to'. She just needs to be exploring books and at her age, that can include, putting books in her mouth, shaking them in her hand, dropping them on the floor, whatever. She needs to get the message that books are just a part of life, and something that you can have fun with .

If she does look at the pictures, even for a few seconds, tell her the names of what she can see. Follow her lead - talk about pictures that she is looking at or pointing to. Avoid asking her any questions like 'oh look, who's that?' - she doesn't have the answers yet so she needs to hear you name the animals/characters/objects/actions for her. If she enjoys touchy-feely books then go with that - she'll be much more likely to look at the book for longer if it's something she enjoys. Have fun!

The only attention my children gave to books at that age was when chewing them. Still, I know where you are coming from, I somehow expected them to enjoy stories and was disappointed to discover that initially they had no interest at all. Don't worry, it will come.

I wouldnt worry my DD was exactly the same, far more interested in what was going than having a book read to her.
She is 14 now and loves books. She virtually taught herself to read.

She will more likely want to read if she sees you reading for pleasure than if she is forced to sit and look at books.

Thanks, folks - this is reassuring! And good tips. It's the classic danger of comparing your baby with others - e.g. other mums report that their babies of her age really enjoy being read to, make them read books again, have favourites, etc. and this seems a rather distant possibility at the moment! It's partly my guilt as although she does see me read books sometimes, I am probably more on the screen (computer, iphone) than books these days (even if I'm reading a book or paper on there) so am not 'modelling' reading behaviour very much. That at least I can do something about!

Its a cliche but they are so different - ds loves books but didn't point or clap til about 16 months, which I was really fretting about and taking for granted the stuff he does do.

You've had great advice above, I'd just add don't be precious about books, they will get chewed, bent, torn, smeared with everything and that is fine as long as they are handling them. Also those floaty plastic ones you get for the bath are good as they are a bit more contained in the bath, we have some that squeak for extra excitement.

my DS just chewed on books at that age. Now (at 2.3) he demands several stories a night and wants to cuddle in as close as he can to me with his very pointy elbows in the bump that will be DC2

he loved all the 'That's not my..' books and any similar touchy feely ones by about 18 months, and is now more into Peepo, Each Peach, Bear fucking hunt, and others of that ilk.

FWIW, my sis swears that her DS (who is 9 months old) loves sitting through disney films and will ask for a specific one, and has been able to since about 8 weeks old. He has also apparently been standing on his own since then, but is still not sitting up. Some mums will report utter bollocks to their peers to make themselves feel better, it's best to smile, say 'oh how lovely!' and do your own thing :o

I could have written that post, OP - my ds is 15 months and I worry that he doesn't enjoy being read to (DH and I are book obsessives, and I so want ds to like reading!). He does however love books that do things, so we're enjoying those at the moment. We have The Wheels on the Bus which he loves as he likes pressing the button - he sits on my knee, we turn a page, he presses the button and we sing the song and I point out the pictures. He's learning now that we turn the page again before we press the button again. We also have Moo which is brilliant - lots of flaps to push and pull which are very durable and lots of touchy-feely patterns. I'm obsessively doing the animal noises with this one in an effort to encourage his first words!

As well as what everyone else has said, make sure she sees you and others reading around her. This will have a big influence on how she sees reading as part of life.

I've actually never let my children chew and bend books. Of course, they get generally battered when they're tiny, but I can't stand seeing books get ruined.
Maybe I've been lucky in that neither child has been a chewer, but if I have seen a book in a mouth I have replaced it with something else.

Try story time at the library.

At 18 months my youngest loves books but doesn't want to actually have them read to her at all. She likes the pictures, pointing and asking 'what that?'. We go through page by page and look at the pictures, what animals she can recognise and say etc. The minute I try to read her the story she is bored and she is off pottering around again.

My older one was just the same at this age, but now at nearly 3 she now demands I read her books. She loves them and 'reads' them herself ie. she knows the story off by heart and sits and says the right bits when she is on the right page.

I think you have to let them enjoy books in their own way at each development stage. We have always had a rule that books are treated with respect, they mustn't be chewed, ripped, thrown or stood on etc and both of them do treat them very well.

I could have written your post OP when my DD was around the same age. I love reading and really wanted her to enjoy it to. As I read all the stuff about reading to babies from the start, I was really worried that we didn't seem to get anywhere with reading to her as she kept wanting to rush ahead turning the pages over etc. For that reason, bedtime reading all seemed a bit pointless.

DD still seemed to enjoy booksthough and, as we left them all over the place, even occasionally on a bookshelf rather than the floor, she would pick them up and play with them in her own way (no chewing thank goodness), flick through them in the pushchair before lobbing them over the side, that kind of thing.

Now she is 2, she loves being read to in bed and at odd times during the day and sometimes "reads" her books to me and DH (she memorises certain passages which is quite amusing).

So in a relatively short time, it seems to have turned itself around. Like others here, I think the thing to do is make sure books are around her, as you are, and offer to read them together whenever you can but don't worry if she doesn't show that much interest all the time.

Good ones we found in the early days were the "That's not my..." range and any books which made noises, particularly animal noises and baby noises and also the ones you get from Bookstart. The little one with the pictures of babies and the mirror at the end she still loves.

At 2, we find the Hairy McLary series great and DD also likes ones she recognises from the TV - Peppa Pig and Postman Pat are the favourites at the moment.