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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

no patience or interest in stories

14 replies

BocaDeTrucha · 29/12/2014 09:35

Ds is a very active 15 month old. He has lots of books, mainly board books, touchy feely ones (that's not my monster etc) and he loves playing with them but he's just not interested in being read to at all. We try to read him stories at bedtime to calm him down but after 10 secs he just wants to turn over all the pages/close the book/jump down and play on the floor etc. I make the stories fun, silly voices etc but i keep reading about story time before bed etc but with ds it's just impossible.

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TheTravellingLemon · 29/12/2014 09:40

I would say this is totally normal. DS was like this at that age. I found a few books that he really liked and we went from there. The acorn wood series is really good because it gives them something to do. The Rabbit's Nap was his favourite. Also Goodnight Moon is DS's absolute favourite. We just did it again and again and again

Mrscog · 29/12/2014 09:49

Totally normal in my experience - DS was 18-20 months before sitting down to listen to even 1/2 a story. I used to get very upset and initimidated by people who had children who would sit and 'listen' from an earlier age, but DS is nearly 3 now and loves stories, so really don't worry :)

bakingtins · 29/12/2014 09:52

I think it's normal too. A love of stories will come as language develops if you keep enjoying books together at his level. Usborne do v good flap books for the next stage (lift and look) and spotting books are good (we particularly liked Kali Stileman's Big Book of My World) but neither of my boys had any patience for stories until they were about 2+.

Millie3030 · 29/12/2014 09:53

Yes my DS is the same and he wants to turn the pages and lift the flaps etc. I let him do it because if that's what he wants to do great, at least he is interacting with a book. I have heard a child's attention span is as long in minutes as their age in years, so 1 minute attention span sounds about right!

Original poster

BocaDeTrucha · 29/12/2014 10:36

Thanks...... You all make me feel a lot better. I keep reading reviews of books in amazon where people say "my 1 year old loves this book and makes me read it over and over" and I kept wondering where I was going wrong. Maybe I have a romanticised image of being all snuggled up with him listening to stories.... But nothing could be further from the reality!! I just don't want to force him and put him off books for good.

OP posts:

Pico2 · 29/12/2014 10:48

They may mean "my child who is 1 and 364 days". 1 covers a massive range.

TheTravellingLemon · 29/12/2014 12:52

pico

trilbydoll · 29/12/2014 12:57

DD will let me read a 'that's not my book' but I only have as long as she wants to stroke it for until she turns the page! Lift the flap books and Bizzy Bear have the right ratio of words to activity. She is 19mo.

Pico2 · 29/12/2014 17:06

When my DD was 1, she would take my finger and stroke it across the feely bit on 'That's not my' books so that I could feel it too. She is now 4, so I have no idea exactly how old she was then, but I'd guess nearer 2 than 1.

heavyhamster · 29/12/2014 18:09

Look him straight in the eye and tell him about your day, instead of stories. Maybe that will make him sleepy.

Or
Play a dvd of a fairy tale. Have the tv set to shut off after the story stops.

6031769 · 30/12/2014 21:33

my D's was exactly the same.think he was around 2.5 when he actually started listening to a story, hes 4.7 now and wants about 5 stories at bed time. he always liked lookin at books tho especially the ones with pics of different things, think it is more important at that age that they just have some sort of interaction with books even if they won't listen to stories

Thereinajiffy · 30/12/2014 22:38

My DS was exactly the same.
He is now 25 months and loves rhyming books like Betty and the Yeti.
He really liked The Night Before Christmas too! Although it think that was because I grabbed and tickled his belly on the line, "that shook when he laughed like a bowl full of jelly".

This phase seems to have come on all of a sudden and there are still a lot he doesn't seem interested in yet.

At the age your DS is at, we used to spend a lot of time with picture books or Baby's first 100 words. It didn't matter what order it went in or how many pages he turned!

Thereinajiffy · 30/12/2014 22:41

heavyhamster we also talked about our day. This worked really well as he has started trying to tell us about his day now.
Very cute way of realising exactly which parts of the day stood out to him

Mrscog · 31/12/2014 08:14

A lot of children's stories are very abstract to young 2 year olds, and not necessarily suitable for catching their attention - talking animals etc. I read a book about speech development which suggested starting with books with only things they could relate to in - things like 'Maisy goes to bed' etc. I definitely had more luck once I scaled it down from the Gruffalo back to 'That's not my' and photographic picture books.

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