HOW TO PICK BOOKS FOR YOUR TODDLERS
Written by Feba Maryann
One of the best things about motivated parents is that they always focus so much on the influence of even the smallest practices in which their children engage in. Quite recently, the call for salient approaches to encourage good reading habits in children has been trending all over. Though, it is first essential for the parent to be a good reader for the child to imbibe from, being a voracious reader needs stimulation from the parent too. One of the easiest ways to achieve the aforementioned is by selecting a few books that may seem to interest your toddler. We’ve got you covered with our 7 tip toolkit, to help you make the right choice.
Visual Presentation
While selecting books for our toddlers, it is a prerequisite that we need to tune the age of our minds into those of our toddlers. In general, when toddlers read a book, they don’t just read it owing to how fascinating they feel its words are. They give equal importance to the incredibly detailed illustrations almost at the end of every page. So when you pick books for your toddler, make sure they are not merely wordy but visually interesting too. Vivid portrayals in such books have an impact like no other in the realms of your child’s imagination and oral communication.
Toddlers And Their Span Of Attention
Let’s think about it this way- our toddlers are tiny little humans with tinier brains (or maybe not so tiny!) and hence have a smaller span of attention! So when you pick a book- short and sweet does the trick. Try selecting books that are short and fit just the right amount of time your toddler would most probably invest in reading.
Focus On Having Fun
The aim is to inculcate a genuine liking to read. Yes! You can pick books that manifest maths lessons and alphabets as stepping stones in the pursuit of their education but reading at this age can be more inclined towards having fun. Select books that constitute the familiar interests of your toddler. And who says books always have to be rigid and unbending in their hardcovers? Let your toddler unlock the aspects of having fun with movable books or even tactile ones!
Moral Of The Story!
Though the highest share of brain development happens during the age of toddlers, we still need to focus on first making the most fundamental things clear in their minds. Be it fiction or nonfiction, children at a smaller age, especially toddlers need books that cut the long story short with a virtuous moral of the story accompanied by an epilogue that reads-’the end’. But these underrated morals surely come of use, when we scale their impact on the toddler’s enhanced ability to solve everyday problems righteously as they start to realize how effectively they can be related to in real life.
Rhymes To The Rescue!
Can’t get your restless kid to read even for a short period of time? Why worry when we’ve got rhymes to our rescue! Toddlers are fond of rhymes and not to mention the funny ones that they can’t help but laugh at. Needless to say, this aspect of learning rhymes from books aids them with an epic sense of jocularity.
Like It? Repeat!
If you find your toddler reading the same book over and over again, don’t stop them. It is seen that if children are fascinated over things that they read in a book, then they tend to enjoy memorizing the text or words more often. This in turn helps in increasing their oratory skills as it helps them with a better range of words to choose to use.
The Hand Rule!
One of the easiest ways to help clear your dilemma as to which book to choose is to use the Hand rule. It goes by the simple steps of picking a book of either a familiar author or interest and reading its second page. When you survey the words, hold a finger up when you don’t know the word. If you end up not knowing more than five words on an average then consider not choosing it because it scales harder in your vocabulary. However, do not judge the book blindly and use this rule with your toddler by reading the book with him and making him count for the new add-ons to his vocabulary. If the intensity seems to be significantly hard then consider choosing another book.