Toddlers (12 - 33 months)
Reading with your toddler is not about you teaching your toddler to read. Reading time with your toddler should be about helping her enjoy books and make connections between words and what they mean. Reading together will also continue to strengthen the bond of love and trust between you and your toddler.
When you read together, your toddler hears lots of words. Hearing these words will help her learn what all kinds of words mean. She’ll learn how to say them, too. As you read together, your toddler is also getting experience with how books and stories work. By reading aloud and sharing stories, you are getting her ready to develop the literacy skills she’ll use later to become a reader.
Your toddler is learning every day—and is eager to learn more! Books can help your toddler see and learn how the world works and how to make sense of her feelings. Touch-and-feel books, lift-the-flap books, and other interactive books help keep your toddler engaged in what you are reading together. Take advantage of your toddler’s natural curiosity and read to her every day, as often as you can. Respect her growing independence by letting her choose books. Read them with enthusiasm—no matter how many times she asks you to read the same book over and over again. Be sure to pause often as you read so you and your toddler can talk about the story or the pictures. Help her connect the words, pictures, and events in her books with real-life experiences.