When a child is just starting to take an interest in books, it is much more important to engage with the book than it is to read the book to your child. Talk about the pictures, point to familiarities, count multiples of items, and enjoy the time together. Talking about the book will build vocabulary and a love of reading in the early stages of learning. It is your words and interaction that your child wants and learns best through.

 Build motor skills:

• Isolating and turning pages.
• Holding the book with two hands.
• Isolating one finger to point.
• Taking the book on and off of a shelf.
• Identifying, counting, and pointing to items from left to right. The eyes begin to learn the scanning motor pattern even before they begin to read.

 

Build cognitive skills

• Identifying objects, items, and characters on the pages.
• Identifying letters and numbers on the pages.
• Counting items on the pages.
• Discussing how items on the page relate to each other.

 

Build social and emotional awareness

• Identifying who are ‘friends’.
• Identifying emotions based on expressions.
• Discussing why the character feels the way they do.
• Discussing what the child likes on the pages, and why.

Written by: Natalie Loewe, MS, OTR/L