From the moment we are born we seek connection with others through touch, eye contact, loving sounds and food to fill our bellies to help us grow.
One of my favourite memories of my children when they were small was bedtime reading. Reading before bed meant sitting on my lap in the rocking chair when they were very small and progressing to laying/sitting on their beds. It meant cuddling and closeness. It meant connection.
How Books Shape Emotional Growth in Babies
Bringing a new baby into the world is a life-changing experience, full of wonder, discovery, and questions about how best to nurture your little one. While your newborn may not yet be able to speak or understand words, storytelling is an incredibly powerful tool to support their emotional and cognitive development from the earliest days of life.
Why Stories Matter for Babies
- Building Connection: Reading to your baby is about much more than the words on the page. The sound of your voice creates a sense of safety and comfort, building a bond that supports emotional security and attachment.
- Developing Listening Skills: From birth, babies are tuned into the rhythm and tone of your voice. Reading stories aloud introduces them to language patterns, pacing, and sounds, helping them develop their auditory processing skills.
- Fostering a Love of Learning: Early exposure to books fosters curiosity and a love of stories, laying the foundation for lifelong learning. Babies begin to associate books with warmth, closeness, and joy.
- Introducing Emotions: Simple stories with vivid illustrations can help babies start to recognise emotions. While they may not yet understand the words, the expressive tone of your voice and visual cues in the illustrations introduce them to the world of feelings.
How to Read to Your Baby
Reading to babies is a precious way to bond and encourage development right from the start. For newborns and infants, choose books with high-contrast images and rhythmic, soothing text. The sound of your voice, more than the words themselves, provides comfort and lays the foundation for early language and emotional recognition. Point to pictures, mimic sounds, and smile—these interactions help your baby feel safe and engaged.
- Choose Simple and Bright Books: Look for books with high-contrast colours, simple illustrations, and rhythmic text. Board books and cloth books are perfect for tiny hands to explore.
- Focus on Your Voice: Babies are soothed by the sound of your voice. Read slowly and expressively, exaggerating tones and emotions to capture their attention.
- Make It Interactive: Point to pictures, name objects, and mimic sounds to engage your baby and encourage early communication.
- Create a Routine: Incorporate reading into your daily routine, such as before naptime or bedtime, to build consistency and make storytelling a cherished habit.
When it comes to babies, the journey into the world of reading begins with connection. Reading aloud to your baby, even in their earliest months, builds trust and a sense of security. Babies thrive on the warmth of a parent’s voice and the rhythm of words, which offer them a first glimpse into the comforting world of stories. This early exposure lays the foundation for their cognitive and emotional growth, making books an essential part of their developmental journey.
Why It Matters
The simple act of reading to your baby has lifelong benefits. It nurtures your bond, supports their developing brain, and introduces them to the magic of stories. Over time, this shared experience grows into a love of books that will carry through their childhood and beyond.
Reading To Older Children
I read to my children every night before bed until they indicated that it was no longer cool…. There is a significant gap between my eldest children and my youngest…. about 10 years. What I found amazing, was as the younger children grew and the bedtime stories started becoming longer chapter books like Deltora Quest, Bridge to Terabithia, Harry Potter, The Hobbit, and many more; the elder children would start to hang around the bedroom door and slowly come in and sit to hear these stories read aloud again. Reading aloud connects the listeners to each other and to the story, and I believe my eldest children were drawn to the reading aloud because they remembered the connection and the experience of enjoying being read to (including the epic plot lines).
Reading aloud builds vocabulary, listening and comprehension skills, empathy, and best of all, can reduces stress. In 2019 a large university in Canada conducted studies on 231 college students to examine whether recreational reading reduced psychological distress. The results indicated that recreational reading was associated with reduced psychological stress over the school year. This is true for all age groups. Many nursing homes are introducing bibliotherapy to support wellbeing, especially those with dementia.
Recreational reading is a simple and cost-effective tool to support our mental health and wellbeing. Give the gift of reading to those you love, not just at Christmas, but all year round. Insert reading into your daily routine for yourself and/or reading aloud to your children. At Mumma Chelles, we’re passionate about supporting parents with tools and resources that inspire connection and growth. Visit Mumma Chelles Bookshop to explore our carefully curated range of books and discover the joy of storytelling with your little one and don’t foget something to read for yourself.
Happy reading,
Chelle