Reading and Rhythm

Your baby is comforted by the rhythms and tones he hears in your voice. He’s learning from them too! When you read or tell stories that rhyme, you’re putting sounds in his ears that he will need first as he learns to talk, and then later as he learns to read.

Help him develop and enjoy his own natural rhythmic abilities by reading rhyming stories to him such as Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr., or Moo, Baa, La La La! by Sandra Boynton.

You can also make up your own rhymes that include your baby’s name or share nursery rhymes such as “Hickory Dickory Dock” or “Humpty Dumpty.”
As you share rhymes frequently, your baby will enjoy hearing words and rhyming sounds he’s becoming familiar with.
Soon he will start learning how to predict what you will say next.
You can use a comforting voice while reading a soothing rhyming book like Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown to help your baby settle down to sleep!

Your baby will enjoy rhyming stories any time and any where--on a long car ride, in a grocery line, or even while you're folding laundry!