Saturday, September 6, 2008

Baby's first information technology

Many caregivers are surprised to learn that it is best to start reading with your baby from the very beginning. Those newborns may look like little human grubs, but their brains are developing at an incredible rate, and any stimuli you give them will create new pathways in their baby-brains, and as mentioned in a previous blog post, repetition will help to strengthen connections between those pathways.

For the early months, choose books that have big bright pictures (pictures of faces are great), and hold them about eight inches away from your baby's face, so she can see them with her growing eyes. When we grown-up types pick up a book, we don't really think about how to use it, forgetting that books are an information technology and we all have to learn how to use them. The more you read with your infant, the more you may see them, once they can pick up objects, turning board book pages from right to left, and tracking words and pictures from left to right (if they're reading English books). And remember, the more your baby sees you read, the more likely she will be to be drawn to reading herself.

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