Better Beginnings encourages all families to Read, Talk, Sing, Write and Play with their child every day.
As library practitioners, we recognise that a child's first and most important teacher is their parent.
We know that literacy begins at birth and that seventy five percent of brain development happens in a child's first three years of life. As such, a library’s role is to:
- raise the awareness of parents about the importance of their role as their child’s first teacher
- model excellent literacy interactions and behaviours to parents
- help parents to make the connection between these literacy interactions and behaviours and their benefits to early literacy development
- support their community by developing appropriate and relevant library resources and services to help families in their community build effective home literacy practices
Here is a guide to the developmental timeline of literacy related skills for babies and some suggestions on how public libraries can support families to develop a child’s early literacy.
0 - 6 months:
- At birth a baby can see best at 15 - 25cms. Include a book in your Rhyme Time sessions and model the reading triangle to parents. The reading triangle: position the book so that the reader can see both the book and the baby’s face, so that the baby’s focus and reaction can be noticed and responded to.
- In the early months, a baby’s colour perceptions are limited to white, black and shades of grey. Red is the first colour to be seen. Include some black and white board books in your picture book collection and promote them to parents of new babies. Providing developmentally appropriate books will help parents to develop their baby’s love of books and reading.
- Communication starts at birth, firstly through crying, then gurgles and cooing. Babies are tuned into “baby talk” or Infant Directed Speech. When speaking in this style, adults speak slowly and clearly, with lots of expression and at a higher pitch. Include this information as a message at your Rhyme Time sessions.
- Babies listen to and become aware of sounds and words being spoken. Encourage new parents to talk to their babies in the language or languages that the parent is most comfortable speaking.
- Between 4 - 7 months, a baby starts to respond to their own name by turning towards the speaker. Include opportunities in your Rhyme Time sessions for parents to talk to their own babies and use their baby’s names in songs and rhymes.
- Young babies may respond to singing by kicking their feet, waving their hands or turning their head to the singer. Provide a regular Rhyme Time service for families. Offer song books, singable books and recorded music suitable for young children for loan. Reassure parents that even if they think they are not a great singer, their baby will love listening to the sound of their parent’s voice.
- Babies may be soothed by gentle music or singing. A baby may stop crying when someone talks or sings calmly. Include a variety of songs and rhymes in your Rhyme Time program, including gentle songs and lullabies.
6 - 12 months:
- Babies begin to respond to and interact with books during shared reading by vocalizing and patting pictures. Babies love looking at pictures of other babies and themselves. Include tactile and lift the flap board books in your picture book collection.
- Babies show increased awareness of books, such as holding them, opening them or turning several pages at once. They may even chew them! Refresh your board book collection as often as possible. Accept damage to books by babies chewing and tearing them as a natural part of developing a love of books and an understanding of Print Concepts.
- Babies vocalise with a growing number of sounds. At this age they may combine consonant and vowel sounds to represent words (“muh-muh-muh,” “buh-buh-buh”). By 12 months, a baby is often saying single words. Include singable books in your board book and picture book collections. Choose animal rhymes, songs and stories to share during Rhyme Time and encourage parents to make animal noises when they rhyme, sing and read at home to help their child develop Phonological Awareness.
- Babies are learning how to communicate with others by looking at faces and listening to voices and will react when parents or carers talk. Encourage parents and caregivers to position their baby to face them at Rhyme Time so that they can see each other’s faces and a parent can gauge and respond to their baby.
- Babies start to clap and bounce to songs or music. Include finger, action and bouncing rhymes and songs in your Rhyme Time sessions. This is the age when presenters of Rhyme Time might start to see little hands twinkling or clapping – hooray!
- Future writers require upper body strength and control, which is starting to develop at this age. Incorporate finger rhymes into your Rhyme Time sessions, e.g. Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, Open, Shut Them, Incey Wincey Spider.
- Babies develop object permanence which is the understanding that objects still exist even when covered up or out of view. Incorporate peekaboo games into Rhyme Time sessions. Encourage parents to cover their own eyes, not their baby’s.
13 - 18 months:
- A toddler will point to the correct object, toy, picture or person when asked and can respond with single words when asked simple questions about a book that they are reading. Include a book in your Rhyme Time sessions and model interactive shared reading methods by asking simple questions and adding more information than the text provides. When possible, show the real object as well as a picture of it to help children begin to understand that a word represents an actual item.
- A toddler may pretend to ‘read’ a book by flipping pages, babbling and making noises that relate to the images on a page. Encourage parents to make books accessible to toddlers so that they can practice using books at any time. Promote library membership and regular borrowing for all members of their family.
- Toddlers may follow simple directions. They understand familiar words even if they cannot say the words. At this age, a one- step direction, e.g. ‘Find your shoes” is enough for a toddler to understand and follow. If you direct your instructions to children at the library, keep this in mind!
- Toddlers use gestures to communicate, such as waving goodbye or shaking head “no”. Joining in with actions is fun for toddlers of this age, so incorporate rhymes and songs with actions in your Rhyme Time program. When talking with a toddler at your library, repeat their responses and expand them to full sentences.
- Repeating songs and singing slowly is important for toddlers so that their responses can keep up with the music. Use the same songs at Rhyme Time for at least a term at a time. This helps adults learn songs so that they can continue to sing them at home. Singing slowly to action songs like ‘Heads and Shoulders, Knees and Toes’ makes sure that toddlers have time to point to the correct body part and learn the correct names.
- Toddlers are able to scribble with a crayon held in their fist, but with no understanding that these marks are ‘writing’. Make drawing materials such as chubby crayons and paper available in the library e.g. after Rhyme Time or Story Time. Encourage parents to make suitable drawing materials available for their toddler to use at home.
Selecting books for babies
Include some books in your Junior collection that:
- are a size that is comfortable for a baby or young toddler to hold
- have colourful bright pictures on a white background
- black and white books are especially suitable for babies aged 0 - 4 months
- have tactile elements such as textures, lift the flaps, cut-outs and mirrors
- have lots of rhythm and repetition
- are rhyming stories, singable stories and nursery rhyme books
- have pictures of real babies, animals and the world around them
For book suggestions suitable for babies, refer to the recommended titles on the Better Beginnings booklists. You can also search for other titles using the Better Beginnings Book Finder.
