Baby Storytime Talking & Reading

Baby Storytime is an excellent opportunity for parents/caregivers to understand the importance of books, reading, talking, singing, and playing with their babies. This storytime is about the interaction of the baby, caregiver and books, as well as that caregivers are their child’s first and best teacher. The librarian is a guide, showing the caregivers how to involve babies with books and literature and encourage reading as a fun, enjoyable activity. It’s also an opportunity to model and directly explain to caregivers what types of books are best for babies.

Why have a kit with a talk & read theme?

Talking and reading very frequently to babies is absolutely critical for their language development. Researchers have found that:

When mothers frequently speak to their infants, their children learned almost 300 more words by age 2 than did children whose mothers rarely spoke to them.
Words need to be spoken to and with a child, not just in their presence to develop their vocabulary. This is often called serve and return.
Children who enter kindergarten with a larger listening vocabulary, generally go on to learn to read easier and do better in school.

Having a baby storytime focused on talking and reading is a great opportunity to tell caregivers about how important it is to talk and read as much as possible to their babies, starting right at birth. It’s also an excellent time to model talking and reading to babies to caregivers and expose them to great and cognitively appropriate books and activities. Some caregivers think their babies are too young to talk and read to because babies may not always appear to pay attention, and some adults think that babies are too young to understand; these storytimes are a great opportunity to overcome that inclination. It is also important to encourage caregivers to speak in their heart language to children, research shows that developing the child’s home language provides the foundation for reading and writing in English as well, preparing children to be biliterate.

Babies, of course, also benefit directly: they become comfortable in the library, hear great books and songs, bond with their caregivers, and are part of the larger community.

It was supposed to be Sunny by Samantha Cotterill
Moo, Baa, La La La! by Sandra Boynton
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin Jr, illustrated by Eric Carle
Flip, Flap, Fly! by Phyllis Root, illustrated by David Walker
My First Baby Signs by Lee Ann Steyns
Hello Baby by Little Bee Books
Black & White by Tana Hoban
12 Copies: Touch Your Nose by Lizzy Doyle
12 copies: Peek-a-Moo! by Marie Torres Cimarusti, illustrated by Stephanie Peterson
Nursery Rhymes, Songs and Fingerplays booklet
Storytimes for Everyone!: Developing Young Children’s Language and Literacy by Saroj Nadkarni Ghoting and Pamela Martin-Díaz
CD: Sing Along! by Caspar Babypants