As a retired English Professor, I get asked “my baby isn’t interested when I read to them.” Right now, reading probably doesn’t feel much like “reading.” Your toddler might touch or pat pictures in a book as if they are trying to determine if the dog they see is alive. They might try to turn two or three pages at a time, turn the pages backwards, hold the book upside down, or not even bother to look at the pictures. This is all normal.  

Your little one may not be willing to sit with you and a book for even 5 minutes at a time and likely will not want to read the book from beginning to end. Some toddlers may notice a single favourite object, like the moon, and want to find it in multiple books rather than “read” through one whole book. 

HERE ARE SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR READING TO YOUR TODDLER:

Read every day

Try to read for up to 5-10 minutes a day. A few short sessions might work better for your toddler than one longer session. It doesn’t have to be the entire book, let them choose.

Bring books to life.

When you and your toddler spend time with a book, use as many dramatic voices, gestures, and expressions, as you can to make the words and/or pictures come alive. You might feel a little bit silly at first, but toddlers love silly. They are also not aware of what’s happening so add dramatic flare and sounds into the story.

Read books with photos.

Great books for this age have real-life, clear colour photographs, especially of familiar things to your toddler. You can create a story purely on the images, this helps build the text to world connections all reading lovers have.

Interact

If they name an object in the book, keep the conversation going by expanding that one word into a short descriptive phrase. For example, if they say “baw” to name a ball picture, you could say, “yes, the ball! I see there is a ball that is big and yellow in the picture.”

Connect to the real world

Connect the book to your toddler’s real-world experiences. For example, you could imitate the sound of the dog in the picture and talk about a time when the neighbour’s dog walked by. 

Keep books everywhere

Keep a couple of books in your diaper bag, next to the changing table, even in the pockets of your car doors. 

Expect wear and tear.

Model your enjoyment and proper care of books, but don’t expect your toddler to handle books with care for quite a while. If they seem to be purposefully tearing book pages, they may be more interested in exploring cardboard or paper. Remove the book and offer them something to pull.