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Home › Articles › Guiding Baby's Development › Read! Sing! Bond!

Read! Sing! Bond!

How You Can Spend Quality Time With Your Child

By Carolyn Campbell

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Today's parents are busy! Yet even busy parents want to bond with their children and it is more important than ever to do so. Here are some ways to spend quality time with your kids.

Reading and Singing Are Quality Time Activities
Remember how it felt when someone read to you as a child? If books and songs are part of loving parent-child interactions from an early age, children associate their presence with all of the positive feelings of being held and loved, says Sharon Greenip, spokeswoman for Zero to Three, a nonprofit Web site whose mission is to promote the healthy development of infants and toddlers. "Both reading and singing offer language, communication, a chance to share in a relationship and the opportunity to practice thinking and movement skills," says Greenip.

She explains that soon after birth, a baby can pick out his mother's voice from other voices. Then, just a bit later, he knows his father's voice, too. Looking forward to hearing his parents' voices is a sign of his connection to and trust in them.

"Begin reading and singing on the day your child is born," says Carol Fiore, of Tallahassee, Fla., the past president of the Association of Library Service to Children (ALSC).

She says that the first book can be any type of picture book, an alphabet book or a wordless book, where the parents make up the story. "A wordless picture book really allows a parent to use her imagination to bond with the child," says Fiore.

She explains that up until 6 months of age, infants' eyesight hasn't fully developed, and books with high contrast in color are easiest for them to see. "For the youngest children, books with bright colors and text, without a lot of shading, work well," she says. Two examples of such books are Tana Hoban's Black on White and White on Black

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