What to read before birth and to the infant before they can watch pictures and follwo the story on the page?

[tonyfran]

Hi all newbie here,

I have some question regarding reading material in the minority language

I understand that even before birth and to very young infants, it can be beneficial to read in the target language. So my questions:

1. what to read when the baby cannot follow on the page yet? (either because they are not born yet or because they are so tiny that they don't follow / watch what's on the page) - can I pick whatever book in that language? e.g. a slow read of Dickens or Hemingway?
2. At what month/age does it make sense to start using children's books with images or just few words on the page? (pointing out the story on the pages for the baby to follow)

Maybe that sounds silly but I'm trying to figure out how to get organized when the time comes

 

[aldredian]

@tonyfran

1. Newborns can't really see in colours. You'll find there's a lot of baby board books in black and white. Start with those. Those just have pictures of things with a single word. That's more than enough. By the time my son's about 5 weeks old, we read him simple nursery rhyme books. Check out Eric Carle's books. They're translated in many languages but basically, books at that level is more than enough. And you don't just "dry read" to your kids. Point to pictures. Basically, talk to them. This article has some pretty good tips: https://raisingchildren.net.au/babies/play-learning/literacy-reading-stories/reading-from-birth. It doesn't matter if they don't follow along. This is basically the start of them learning to communicate. I remember we used to read and do tummy time at the same time. So like, I plop my son onto his tummy over my nursing pillow so he can practice keeping his head up. And my mum got this very simple Chinese book and we just hold it up in front of him and read but we'll move the book and have him follow the book as we moved it around so he practices his neck control. But then at the same time, we're reading to him, pointing to the words and pictures.
   
   As for when they're still in the womb, who cares! Read whatever you want. You're not going to have that much time and luxury to be able to read what you want once the baby's here. All that's going to do is for them to be familiar with your voice and the language you speak and develop an "accent" e.g. https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/babies-already-have-an-accent-09-11-06/#:\~:text=But%20a%20new%20study%20in,they%20know%20their%20mother's%20voice.
2. Same deal - check above link.

My husband and I setup a bedtime routine where we'd always read to our son before bed. Back in the early days, I bought the same books in both languages and we'd read the same book in our language. I stopped doing this probably around when he's a year old 'cause I was getting sick of only reading Chinese books that were originally in English or Japanese so I started soughting out original Chinese children's books.

 

[giants89]

@tonyfran Advanced books are for entertainment, bonding, and developing language. Children’s books are for learning to read and simplifying lessons (morals, safety, etc)

 

[mjmichaels]

@tonyfran I read short stories to my kiddo when she was a tiny baby. Like stuff I wanted to read, not kids stories. Short stories were great because you could actually finish them. When she started actually paying attention, 4 months or so, I switched to picture books.