There is no one ideal age to start reading to your child, but reading to your children should be a practice that you establish as early as possible and continue to do until they are old enough to read to you instead. Reading to your children will help with all aspects of language acquisition including vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation, and comprehension.
Babies
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that you start reading to your child daily by six months of age. A few minutes a day is good enough at this age. Babies love to hear the sound of your voice. Try singing the words in the book to your baby. Point out the pictures and talk about them. Picture books featuring faces--children or adult--are often popular at this age. Young babies also enjoy handling board books, cloth books, and texture books.
Toddlers
As your baby grows older, she will probably take a strong interest in turning the pages of the books themselves. Sturdy board books will sustain the toddler's temptation to tear and chew the paper. Your baby may go through a phase of being too restless to listen to a full story. If this is the case, simply point out and name familiar objects in the pictures, then get your child to do the same. Children at this age often particularly enjoy books with rhymes and books about bedtime or saying goodnight.
Preschoolers
Eventually, your child will settle down and have the attention span and motor skills to listen while you read a whole book--but don't push if your child is restless or ready to quit. Keep reading fun instead of a chore. Counting books and alphabet books are popular at this age. Your child may begin to memorize favorite lines and recite them as you read or pick out and identify individual letters or numbers. Show your child the words on the page, running your finger underneath as you read. Act out the story using different, exaggerated voices and sounds.
Learning To Read
By about age five, your child will be ready to read on his own. Encourage your child to read aloud to you and to point out words as he reads. Help to sound out unfamiliar words and try not to stop the flow of the story to make corrections. Even when your child can read independently, don't stop reading together. He will still enjoy listening to you read stories that may be too difficult to tackle alone.
More Reading Tips
Give your child a bookshelf of her own and stock it with favorites. Consider regular trips to your local library to choose new reading material, although you may want to wait to make this part of your routine until your children are about three years old and know how to treat books gently. Remember that reading together is supposed to be fun and that encouraging enjoyment of reading is the best way to make a child a lifelong reader.
