My First Stories

Materials You Need: Short story books, preferably with large pictures.

What You Can Do Together: This week you will tell your baby two stories per day. During the week, you will tell him/her the same story when getting up and at bedtime. The baby needs to observe the pictures in the book and listen for changes in the voice and expression of the person telling the story.

From 4-6 months, this activity encourages the child to try saying syllables related to the story.

If the baby responds with babbling, rhymes, or words, start a conversation with her/him about what you are telling them. You can have a conversation by talking to him/her and waiting for their response with sounds, then showing him/her the pictures in the book and telling him/her something about the story or what they see.

What Your Child is Learning: The verbalizations that babies hear are of great importance to their linguistic development, which is a crucial part of their overall social development.