Learning Resources for Parents
You may have heard that it is important to read to your child at an early age, but have you wondered why? Why do some children learn to read before they go to school and others struggle to read well into adulthood? While I will explore problems that children may encounter when learning to read let’s begin with some simple straightforward things to do to introduce your child to the world of print.
You may be asking, but what should I be reading to my child?
First and foremost, reading to an infant, toddler, and preschooler, (between any reader and listener) is the interaction between them. An image that comes to my mind is from one of my favorite series, Doc Martin on PBS. Doc Martin, a socially awkward, highly intelligent surgeon is bewildered by the suggestions his wife gives him regarding how to interact with his tiny infant son who he adores. Rattles and jostling do not fit into Doc Martin’s comfort zone, so he reads the infant child an excerpt about the latest surgical procedure from a medical journal. This particular episode ends with the baby’s eyes solely fixed on his daddy’s face, beautiful example of bonding!
However, I think you may find the following list of wordless and almost wordless picture books more than sufficient to begin to build your child’s library of interesting and fun stories!
Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crocket Johnson
Good Dog, Carl by Alexandra Day
Do You Want to be My Friend? by Eric Carle
Good Night, Gorilla by Peggy Rathmann
Have You Seen My Duckling? by Nancy Tafuri
The Snowman by Raymond Briggs
Wave by Suzy Lee
Early Bird Gets the Worm by Bruce Lansky
My Friend Rabbit by Eric Rohmann
Time Flies by Eric Rohmann
South by Patrick McDonnell
Chicken and Cat by Sara Varon
A Ball for Daisy by Chris Racshka
Where’s Walrus by Stephen Savage
Zoom by Istvan Banyai