Reading Books with Toddlers

“Babies and toddlers are enriched by books. Even more important, the relationships between very young children and their parents are enriched by books. Books (can) provide a source of mutual pleasure for parent and child that is likely to last a lifetime. We introduce infants and toddlers to books not simply because of what they will learn from them, but so that they will grow to love them. It is a gift beyond measure.”

-Jeree H. Pawl, Ph.D

When should I start reading books with my child?

Today! It is never too early to start exposing your child to books. Books are a wonderful way to introduce children to new words, increase attention, and help build a child’s understanding of the world.

Your child will have the most success if you can make books part of your everyday routine. You can decide to read books as part of your nap and bedtime routine, in the car, at the grocery store, in the bath, and whenever you will most likely remember to make it an everyday habit.

How can I help my child become interested in books?

Try to have fun! When your child is engaged and enjoying himself he is learning. Remember that kids learn through playing, so books need to be viewed as another way to play.

Follow Your Child’s Lead: let your child decide how long you should be reading (a few minutes at a time is just fine), how much of a book you should read (you don’t have to read to the end of the story), and which parts of the book to read (you don’t have to go in order or in any order). Reading will be a lot more fun if you focus on what your child is interested in instead of what you think your child should be interested in.

Talk about the Pictures: you do not have to read all (or any) of the words to tell a story. Ask your child what he sees, look at what your child is looking at, and talk about the pictures that your child is interested in. Just asking “what’s that?” can get really boring…for you and for your child, try asking “what do you see?” instead.

Bring the Pictures to Life: pictures can be hard for a child to understand, they are a lot more abstract than the real object or action they represent. When you are reading try to bring the pictures to life: pretend to “eat” the berries, “wash” the boy’s dirty hands, “pet” the soft kitty, etc. These types of games will help your child comprehend what the picture means.

Let Children Turn the Pages: babies may not be able to turn the pages of a book but an 18-month-old will want to give it a try, and a three-year-old can certainly do it alone. Remember, it's OK to skip pages or go in any order. *Board books are especially great for encouraging a child to turn pages.

Create Books Together: your child may be a lot more interested in a book if it has pictures of him or his family. You can use basic dollar photo books and add pictures of family members or favorite toys or games to capture his attention. Another fun idea is to make a color book by having fun with crayons, markers, and paints.

Keep It Simple: For young children it is generally best to stick to books that are not too overwhelming or overstimulating. It can be confusing for a child to pick out specific objects on a very busy page of pictures, or to focus on a book and the language of the book if they are too caught up in the extraneous bells and whistles (lights and sounds).

What books are the best for helping my child engage?

It generally depends on the child’s age and experience.

Infant: 0-6 months

• Books with simple, large pictures or designs with bright contrasting colors (black and white and red are great colors for newborns).
• Stiff cardboard, "chunky" books, or fold out books that can be propped up in the crib (they also make great teething toys).
• Cloth and soft vinyl books with simple pictures of people or familiar objects that can go in the bath or get washed.

Baby: 6-12 months

• Board books with photos of other babies (babies love faces!).
• Brightly colored "chunky" board books to touch and taste.
• Books with photos of familiar objects like balls and bottles.
• Books with sturdy pages that can be propped up or spread out in the crib or on a blanket.
• Plastic/vinyl books for bath time.
• Washable cloth books to cuddle and mouth.
• Small plastic photo albums of family and friends.

Young Toddlers: 12-24 months

• Sturdy board books that they can carry.
• Books with photos of children doing familiar things like sleeping or playing.
• Goodnight books for bed time.
• Books about saying good-bye and hello (sturdy flap books are nice).
• Books with only a few words on each page.
• Books with brightly colored, engaging illustrations.
• Books with simple rhymes or predictable, repetitive text.
• Touch-and-feel books (you can talk about fuzzy, rough, bumpy, etc.).
• Animal books of all sizes and shapes (animal sounds are such fun!).

Older Toddlers: 24-36 months

• Books that tell simple familiar stories.
• Simple rhyming books that they can memorize.
• Bed time books.
• Books about counting, the alphabet, shapes or sizes.
• Animal books, vehicle books, books about playtime.
• Pop-up books, pull-the-tab books, touch-and-feel books.
• Books with humorous pictures and words.

References:

Choosing Books for Babies and Toddlers, www.zerotothree.org

Choosing Books for Young Children, Read with Me, www.rif.org

Tips for Sharing Books with Babies and Toddlers, www.zerotothree.org

Types of Picture Books to Improve Your Toddler’s Language, K. Scanlon, www.blog.asha.org

Sensory Play Ideas

Here is a cool handout that I put together to help parents get some ideas for sensory based play. Reminder: this may be hard for your child, make sure he his happy (well rested, fed, clean diaper, etc.) Also, if your child has sensory difficulties that affect eating you probably will want to do these activities in an area he is not expected to eat in, like outside or at a water table so that he doesn't make any negative associations to eating or food. Keep these activities fun and stress-free. It is ok to get messy!

Let’s broaden your child’s sensory input with activities that are S.A.F.E. (Sensory-motor, Appropriate, Fun and Easy). Let’s provide tactile sensations of dough, water, clay, glue, rock, mud, sap, earth, paint, feathers and fur. Children thrive when their eyes, ears, skin, and whole bodies ingest and digest all kinds of sensory stimuli. They may develop to their greatest potential if they have opportunities to feel rain on their faces, leaves in their hair, goo on their fingers, and mud between their toes.

SOME S.A.F.E. TACTILE EXPERIENCES

• Finger-painting on a tray with chocolate pudding. This open-ended, hands-on activity feels as good as it tastes. Next time, offer shaving cream and enjoy the smell and easy clean-up.

• Digging for worms. Handling worms is about as tactile as you can get.

• Going barefoot, lakeside. The differences between firm and squishy, warm and cold, dry and wet are worth investigating.

• Forming rice balls or rolling cookies in sugar.

• Kneading playdough or real dough. Make shapes, people, pretzels, or blobs.

• Ripping paper. Strips of newspaper are useful to line the hamster cage. Strips of construction paper or tissue paper make beautiful collages. Remember the process, not the product, is the goal.

• Discovering treasures in a Feely/Sensory Box. (Cut a hand-sized hole in a shoebox lid. Fill the box with lentils, cotton balls, packing peanuts, or sand. Add buttons, shells, uncooked macaroni, or small toys.) The idea is to thrust a hand through the hole and let the fingers do the seeing. No peeking!

• Collecting seeds, pebbles, or shells in an egg carton. Loading up the receptacles and dumping them out is great fun for a very young child. The ability to sort and classify the items comes later. *watch for choking hazards

• Petting the pet. Drying a wet dog, stroking a kitten, providing a finger perch for a parakeet, or hugging a baby are tactile experiences that make a child feel good, inside and out.

taken from Kranowitz, C. (2004), In Praise of Mud, S.I. Focus

Getting in on Free-Play

I recently read an article on the importance of play in maintaining a healthy relationship with your child. It is not ground-breaking or even super recent (it was published in 2007). But I thought the article was amazing. It offered excellent ideas on how to really increase the quality of the time you spend with your child.

“Play is essential to development because it contributes to the cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being of children” (Ginsburg, K. R., 2007). Free-play (unscheduled, independent, nonscreen time) is important! It is a great way for kids to discover and learn; free-play promotes healthy, fit kids.

Get in on your child’s free-play!

Give your kids a lot of time for free-play; be careful not to squeeze too many things into your child’s schedule.

Kids need time to explore and play with a variety of things, show your kids how new things are used, it is also ok to think outside of the box.

Play with the things your child is interested in…wait for your child to show you what/how they want to play.

Encourage your kids to play with toys that use imagination and don’t just “entertain”. (Blocks or dolls are great options imagination toys.)

Promote active play. Limit the use of passive entertainment (TV, movies, computers, electronic gaming devices).

Try getting on the floor and playing with your child down at his level and at his pace (generally much slower than yours).

Schedule a time (or several times) each day to explore books with your kids.

Playgroups are great for kids around 2.5 to 3 years old to learn how to play with other kids.

Ideas taken from Ginsburg, K.R. (2007). The importance of play in promoting healthy child development and maintaining strong parent-child bonds. Pediatrics, 119, 182-188.

Typical 3 year old sounds/speech clarity

I have compiled some information about the clarity of speech that we would like to see in 3 year olds. These are some ideas for things to work on/look at when your child is approaching his third birthday. Don't get too hung up on any one item, try to look at your child's speech from a wide view when they are really little (birth to three). How they are using the words they have is just as or even more important than how they are saying them.

Sounds:

Children should be able to copy the “m”, “b”, “y”, “n”, “w”, “d”, “p”, and “h”

Children might be able to copy the “t”, “ng”, “k”, “g”, “f”, “v”, “ch”, and “j”

Words:

Children should use be using correct vowels in their words

Children should be able to say the sounds listed above in the beginning and endings of words (if they are alone and not in a group of consonants).

Children might not be able to say all of the consonants that are in a group (like the st in stop)

Children might replace a hard sound like a “v” with an easier sound like a “b”

Intelligibility:

Strangers should be able to understand around 75% of what child says (gestures included)

Parents should be able to understand around 90% of what child says (gestures included)

Encouraging your child to talk GOOD TECHNIQUES

Don’t Anticipate Your Child’s Needs or Wants:

Don’t anticipate your child’s every need or want before they have a chance to make them known to you.

Example: When you know your child wants a drink – instead of just handing them the drink, require them to request it (pointing, signing, or saying “drink”).

Sabotage the Environment:

Mess up routines so your child has to communicate his or her needs.

Example: During mealtime give everyone a spoon but “forget” to give your child a spoon. Wait and see if your child initiates they need something. If they don’t initiate what they need, help them by saying. “What do you need?” or “Are you missing something” or “Uh-oh!” Label the item before you give it to them.

Play “dumb” when your child points to a desired object.

Example: When your child points to the counter for their drink (or another desired object you know they want), say: “What do you want?” (pause) “A spoon?” (pause) “An apple?” (pause) “A drink?” …. “Oh, Drink!”

Parent Speech:

Use clear simple speech with your child during play routines. The goal is to talk in phrases you want your child to copy – 1 to 2 words.

Example: Instead of saying “Go down the hall and get your shoes” say “Get shoes”. When getting undressed use short phrases “Shoes off…shirt off…etc.”

Don’t do this all the time. Your child needs to hear normal phrases as well.

Echo-Expansion Modeling:

Add 1 or 2 words to what your child says when you respond back to him or her.

Example: When your child says “up” say “up… you want up”.

Self-Talk:

When your child is within hearing range, talk about what you are doing while you do it.

Example: When washing your hands at the sink say “wash hands”, when the phone is ringing say “I hear the phone”.

Parallel Talk:

When playing with your child, describe what your child is doing while they are doing it.

Example: When your child picks up a car – say “pick up car”. When your child drops a block – say “drop block”.

Describe what he is seeing and hearing.

Example: “That’s a ball”, When listening to music say “Music, listen to music”

Rigid Eaters

Sometimes kids find specific foods they like and are hesitant to try anything else. This can be trying for mom (who does not want chicken nuggets for dinner every day) and it can be nutritionally hazardous for a child. How can you get your child to branch out? What happens when they become entirely tied to a routine and will not bend?
Here is one idea that I have seen work, you might want to give it a try...
Expand on the familiar routine. Instead of taking a complete U-turn and really throwing your child stay with what he is comfortable with and add a little something new.
Example: "My child loves to eat mac-n-cheese for dinner. When I try something else he flings it on the floor or just spits it out if I put it in his mouth. Sometimes I can get him to eat spaghetti noodles or other starchy foods but he will only eat a little. He eats best when it is mac-n-cheese"
So to try my idea this parent could cook up a box of mac-n-cheese and give her son a little in a very small bowl next to whatever the family is eating for dinner. Then her son will have his staple favorite to help ease him into whatever the new food is. Mom is expanding by adding new foods next to his familiar mac-n-cheese.
Another way to expand...cook only the macaroni noodles and serve them with a new sauce...maybe Mom's homemade cheese sauce with pureed carrots or sweet potatoes added, maybe a new Alfredo sauce, whatever goes along best with what the family is eating.
One more idea: Mom could give her son macaroni noodles plain and let him dip them into several kinds of sauces (his favorite cheese sauce and others).
The whole idea is to show your child that his routine is ok and that adding new things doesn't have to replace his routine, instead they can compliment it. (This is not the end target of being a flexible eater but it is a good way to take a beginning step towards that goal)

Foods - Getting Dirty

Last week I attended a class on feeding and swallowing taught by one of our occupational therapists. The kids that she was helping were struggling to try new foods or to eat enough food to meet their nutritional demands. I was very impressed at how important it is to integrate all of the senses when introducing foods to young children. Here are some of the technique tips that I learned from watching the class...

• Messy food = more sensory input - A good way to introduce new foods is to put some on the tray in front of your child and let them see it, smell it, and touch it. This allows your child to gather more sensory information about the new food before they make the commitment to taste it. Yes, your kiddo will get dirty hands but maybe then he will try to lick his fingers...
• Mix and match foods - It is easy to get into a routine and offer the same foods over and over to your child. You know they'll eat it, they know they'll like it. BUT it is a good idea to try to offer something new along with the old familiar favorites. You don't have to force your kid to eat it, but if you make the new food available to see, smell and touch long enough (don't just offer the new food once, it make take several exposures) then your child will be more willing to try the new food.
• Encourage independence - Yes, when you feed your child it gets in faster and there is generally less to clean up. However, when you are feeding your child they miss out on the fine motor skill practice self-feeding encourages. You can help your child learn to feed himself by starting with only a little water in his cup, or a child size plastic spoon. Things will be messy but fostering his independence will help him to feel successful.

Personal note: I have tried to incorporate these tips during my son's meal and snack times. We go through a lot more bibs these days. Being ok with the mess he makes has been hard, but he has started using a neat pincer grasp that he didn't have before...so maybe the mess is worth it!