Top tips for reading with your child

When to start

It’s never too early to start enjoying books with your child. Shared reading can be a wonderful, calming experience that supports bonding and develops your baby’s speech and language skills. Research shows that children who are read to regularly from a young age do better when they start school.

How to read together

If you can, find a moment in your daily routine to read one or two books together. Children will start to look forward to this time and will associate reading with feeling safe and calm. It’s best to turn off any distractions and find a quiet, comfy place to cuddle up together. Animal noises, sound effects and silly voices can help children to connect sounds to images on the page – they also make the experience fun for all involved! Look at the cover together, talk about what you see on each page, point to letters and words as you read and show your baby how to turn the pages. It’s ok to read the same book over and over, as children find the repetition comforting and will begin to anticipate what comes next in the story.

What sort of books to read

Babies and toddlers 

Look for chunky board books with pages that won’t rip and are easy for little hands to turn. For young babies, choose books with bold, simple images of familiar things or pictures of faces. Older babies and toddlers often enjoy books with touchy-feely patches, different textures or sounds.

Young children 

Choose stories that you enjoy reading yourself and books that encourage fun interactions between adult and child. Provide a variety of fiction and simple non-fiction with colourful, engaging illustrations.

Older children 

As children get older, they start to choose books for themselves that tie in with their own interests and experiences. Humour can be a great incentive for less enthusiastic readers, so look for books that are funny and entertaining. Comic-style books, graphic novels or books that contain puzzles or quests are also a great way to encourage older children to read.