Most parents know that reading with your school aged children is a very important part of their success in the early years of school, but it’s also important to read to younger children. Reading to infants contributes to the development of their growing brains and gives them a good start towards a lifelong love of reading and good literature.
When you read to babies, it can also help speech development as they are taking in information and beginning to learn about speech patterns. In addition, synapses connect between your infant’s neurons as you read aloud, positively affecting child development in many areas.
Infants tune in to the rhythm and cadence of our voices, especially the familiar voices of their parents and caregivers. While initially the rhythmic phrase, “Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?” for example, may not hold meaning; your baby is taking in the sounds of language and how they fit together. As babies see a picture of a red bird in the book and you name the bird, they begin to make the connection between what you say and the picture of the red bird. The more you read the book, the stronger the connection.
The repetitive story line makes the book fun, engaging and easier to remember. Reading to babies is not only a way to inspire a love of books from infancy, but also an important way to grow a baby’s vocabulary – first his understanding and later her speaking vocabulary.
At the Cordova Public Library, we’ve been watching the (excuse the pun) rebirth of Cordova’s baby boom with a lot of new readers arriving at our doorstep, especially the littlest kind!
To accommodate our new readers, our Youth Services Librarian, Anna Hernandez spent some time ordering new ‘first read’ books and board books for our collection and our patrons. Funds for these new Board Books came from a movie fundraiser held earlier this year.
Here’s just a few of the new additions:
Curious George Makes Pancakes, by H.A. Rey
Red Riding Hood, by Tony Ross
Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, by Mem Fox
Kindness to Share from A to Z, by Todd Snow
Choo! Choo!: Guess the Vehicle! (What’s That Noise?), by Child’s Play
Peek-A-Book, by Allan Ahlberg
Three Little Pigs, by Tony Ross
It’s My Birthday, by Helen Oxenbury
The Cordova Public Library is open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday; noon to 5 p.m. Saturday; noon-5 p.m. Sunday; and closed Monday.
Join us for activities for young and old at your library.
Teen Art at 6-8 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 6
After School Art, 3-4 p.m. Friday, Dec. 8
Seniors, Books and Coffee. Will return in January 2018
