This is part three of a series on promoting literacy in the infant/toddler – preschool years. You can find part one here and part two here.

“Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.”

– Emilie Buchwald

No pressure, right?

Have no fear! It’s actually easier than you think.

I’ve written before about content related things to consider when you’re buying books for your little one’s personal library. It might seem obvious to some of you more seasoned mamas and papas, but if there was only one thing you could remember about book buying, I would tell you to choose books with intention!

(Check out this post for more on book content!)

Every literacy related thing you do with your kiddos should reflect their abilities. Kids need different things at different ages.

Here are some age specific tips to keep in mind.

Babies

When you’re picking out books for your infant, keep in mind that their vision is not fully developed until three or four months. Wordless books with images in black, white, and sometimes red (known as “high contrast books”) are a great precursor to books with words and more complex illustrations.

The other thing you should consider is that your baby will mouth and tear at their books. Choose cloth and vinyl books to avoid feeling frustrated that you’ve spent $15 on a book that your baby immediately tore up.

“Tabies” and Toddlers

I love this made up word from Susie over at Busy Toddler (a great resource for age appropriate early childhood activities)! A “taby” is a kiddo who isn’t quite a baby anymore, but isn’t quite a toddler yet either.

Most tabies will still be tearing up their books. Their bodies just won’t have developed to the point where they have the fine motor skills to gently turn pages. They’ll still want to put things in their mouths.

On the other hand, their receptive language vocabulary (spoken words they understand) will have increased, so they’re able to sit still long enough to listen to very short stories. Keep those baby books in the rotation, but add board books and books with sturdy pages. You might be tempted to share picture books with regular paper pages. Just make sure you’re in charge of the page turning (or super vigilant when watching those tiny helping hands) and keep them out of reach when not in use to keep them intact longer.

Preschoolers

This is the time when your little ones will start “reading” picture books independently. All of that reading you did together when they were babies and toddlers will help develop the skills they need to gently care for their books and maintain their interest without your help. They won’t need you to turn pages although they might end up skipping pages and a page or two might get a little torn. (That said, every child is different and their bookhandling skills are directly related to their experiences and physical development.) You can still keep baby books and board books in their libraries but make sure you add in some more challenging options like picture books.

Difficulty Level

It’s fairly intuitive to figure out which type of books to get for your children but how challenging should they be? This can best be answered by turning to psychologist Lev Vygotsky’s “zone of proximal development” (ZPD).

Essentially, Vygotsky suggested that there are three stages in a child’s learning process.

1. What the child is not yet capable of and/or knows even without assistance
2. What the child is capable of and/or knows with assistance (ZPD)
3. What the child is capable of and/or knows independent of assistance

Time will change where you are in the learning process. Take riding a bike. When you were a baby, there was no way you could ride a bike! You were in that first stage. As you got older, someone taught you the basics and you probably had a bike with training wheels. You were in the second stage — your zone of proximal development. A little nervous maybe but able to get by with that help. With lots of practice, the training wheels came off and you were riding all by yourself. Congrats! You made it to the third stage of the learning process!

In the context of choosing books, you want to have plenty of books that your kiddo can “read” on their own — books that match their attention span, interests, and abilities. These are their independent play books.

For books that fall into your kiddo’s ZPD, you’ll want books that require your presence. These might be new books, picture books for toddlers, early chapter books for preschoolers, bedtime stories, etc — things they’re interested in but will still stretch their abilities. This will look different at every age and for every child. Ask meaningful questions that expand on the story you’re reading or point out interesting things in the illustrations.

Obviously, you’ll want to avoid books like East of Eden or Atlas Shrugged or The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volumes 1-6. Leave those for their college courses.

To make a long explanation short, just take a moment to consider the books you’re buying for your little one and how you’re reading with them.

My almost two year old niece is currently OBSESSED with Elmo. Does that mean her parents should only buy and read Elmo books? Absolutely not! First off they would go crazy. Second, she would never grow beyond her abilities. Right now, her “Mo-Mo” books are a great resource for her to read independently. As she grows, her parents can challenge her to stretch beyond what she’s capable of. They’ll continue to expose her to longer books, different authors and characters, and a few intentionally placed questions or comments. She’ll be reading those multi-volume tomes in no time.

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What are some of your kiddo’s favorite books? What slightly challenging stories are you excited to share with your children? Let me know in the comments!