Why Reading Out

When your baby is born do you ask, you want to talk to her because you want to bond with her, you want to tell about things around her, you want her to know about the world and enjoy!

If this is not enough reason, read the following:

• Emotional Development - The whole experience of reading out to your infant is about joy of bonding. When you read out aloud with all expressions, your infant also goes through observation and imitation of those emotional expressions, which leads to emotional development.
• Cognitive Development - At birth, a baby's brain is not fully developed, the more the senses are stimulated, the more quickly the rest of the brain will develop. So reading aloud to your baby is an important form of intellectual stimulation.
• Communication Development - When you are reading out, your child is paying attention. She is learning to listen.

Also Read: Spending Quality Time with Your Kids

Handling Your Child's Reading Tantrum

Remember, all the kids are not same. You may face some resistance in the beginning but have patience and continue with your role.

Alka Verma, a teacher with Gokuldham High School, who also runs reading classes for children in Goregaon shares some tips:

• Your child may suddenly start feeling sleepy or restless, so let go off her for that moment. Keep doing your job patiently, bringing the child and book together.
• She may insist on doing something else to divert your attention from reading to her. Make sure you follow the child and bring her back to the book after she is done with that activity.
• If your child loves a particular cartoon character or movie, use this opportunity to introduce books based on it. This way you will cut on her TV time as well.
• Choose books which are activity oriented like open the flap and see, touch and tell, pop up fairly tales, books with sounds and so on.

Also Read: Stop Those Tantrums