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'Reading Tips for Parents of Babies.

8/12/2013

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By: Reading Rockets

It's never too early to read to your baby. As soon as your baby is born, he or she starts learning. Just by talking to, playing with, and caring for your baby every day, you help your baby develop language skills necessary to become a reader. By reading with your baby, you foster a love of books and reading right from the start. The tips below offer some fun ways you can help your child become a happy and confident reader. Try a new tip each week. See what works best for your child.

Snuggle up with a bookWhen you hold your baby close and look at a book together, your baby will enjoy the snuggling and hearing your voice as well as the story. Feeling safe and secure with you while looking at a book builds your baby's confidence and love of reading.


Choose baby-friendly books
Books with bright and bold or high-contrast illustrations are easier for young babies to see, and will grab their attention. Books made of cloth or soft plastic (for the bathtub) or "board books" with sturdy cardboard pages are easier for a baby to handle.


Keep books where your baby can reach them
Make sure books are as easy to reach, hold, and look at as toys. Remember, a baby will do with a book what he does with everything else — put it in his mouth. And that's exactly what he's supposed to do, so you may only want to put chewable books within reach.


Talk with your baby — all day long
Describe the weather or which apples you are choosing at the grocery. Talk about the pictures in a book or things you see on a walk. Ask questions. By listening, your child learns words, ideas, and how language works.


Encourage your baby's coos, growls, and gurgles
They are your baby's way of communicating with you, and are important first steps toward speech. Encourage attempts to mimic you. The more your baby practices making sounds, the clearer they will become. Go ahead and moo, woof and honk!


Give baby a hand!
Encourage your baby to pick up crackers or peas, touch noses and toes, point to pictures and grab toys. The muscles in those little hands will grow strong, agile, and ready to turn pages.


Develop a daily routine (and make reading a part of it)Routines can soothe a baby, and let a baby learn to predict what will happen next. The ability to predict is important when your child is older and is reading independently.


Sing, Read, RepeatRead favorite stories and sing favorite songs over and over again. Repeated fun with books will strengthen language development and positive feelings about reading.

To read more on this and find similar articles please click on the following link: http://www.readingrockets.org/article/23798/
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Introduction to Infant/Early Childhood Mental Health.

8/2/2013

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Infant and early childhood mental health refers to the quality of a child's first and early relationships and the child's social and emotional development. When we talk about infant/early childhood mental health we mean a child's ability to:

  • experience warm and responsive relationships with care givers;
  • create relationships with others;
  • explore and learn;
  • communicate in play; and;
  • express and control emotions.
We know through scientific research that a child's early experiences—whether good or bad —affect the development of children's brains and their health (Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University). The first three years of a baby's life is a time of big growth and development. A newborn's brain is about 25 percent of its adult weight. By age 3, your child's brain has mostly grown and is making connections and learning about the world (Zero to Three). Your baby and toddler need caring, sensitive adult-child contact to help him/her develop trust, understanding, compassion, kindness, and a conscience. We now know that babies' brains do not develop fully when this warm care giving is missing. Healthy and caring parent/caregiver relationships help children get ready to enter school so they can be happy, well behaved and willing to learn. Research has shown that as a child grows, kind relationships with parents/caregivers shape his or her self-image and give the child the skills needed to face new challenges.

Developing Warm and Caring RelationshipsEarly relationships are so important for a young child to have good mental health. Parents and caregivers play a large part in their children's mental health. When parents are open and caring to their babies and toddlers' needs they create a secure and trusting relationship that later relationships will be built upon. Infants thrive on human stimuli –parents' faces, voices, touch, and even smell. They are born with the need to be with people and not just for food. Their first "toy" is Mommy or Daddy's face. They love to look at eyes and mouths. Babies would rather listen to speech or singing than any other kind of sound.

As babies get older and do more on their own, they still need physical care, but they also need their parents/caregivers for their emotional care. Close and caring relationships help infants, toddlers and preschoolers with a healthy- start in their mental health. There are many things that a parent/caregiver can do with their child to help their child's learning every day.

Great Ways to Interact With Your Young Child
  • Learn to read your babies cues and what soothing techniques work.
  • Talk often with your children from the day they are born.
  • Hug them, hold them, and respond to their needs and interests.
  • Listen carefully as your children communicate with you.
  • Read aloud to your children every day, even when they are babies. Play and sing with them often.
  • Say "yes" and "I love you" as much as you say "no" and "don't."
  • Ensure a safe, orderly, and predictable environment, wherever they are.
  • Set limits on their behavior when necessary and guide them calmly, not harshly.
Adapted from the Early Childhood-Head Start Task Force, U.S. Departments of Education and Health & Human Services

To read the original article or find more resources from Kids Ment



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    The Early Childhood Councils of Ansonia & Derby.

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