As a book-lover, writer and mum, I’ve believed for a long time that books are essential in the lives of children. But it was actually my time spent working in infant mental health before I had children that cemented this belief for me.
According to the Australian Association of Infant Mental Health, infant mental health is the developing capacity of infants and young children to experience, express and regulate emotions, form close and secure relationships, and explore the environment and learn. In my role as a health promotion officer in infant mental health, it always struck me just how valuable books are as tools for promoting and supporting this development.
Here’s why:
- Reading books can help with emotional regulation, especially supporting babies and young children to calm down and enjoy some quiet time. This is one of the key reasons reading before bed can be really useful.
- Sitting a baby or child on your lap to share a book also fosters connection between care-giver and child. It builds a sense of safety and security; it’s warm, comforting and reassuring. Even babies a few days old benefit from that closeness and the chance to hear their care-giver’s voice that is already familiar from their time in the womb.
- Reading helps build babies’ brains by supporting early language development. Books demonstrate letters, words (vocabulary), and sentence structure. Rhythm, rhyme and repetition all help little brains start to predict what words might come next.
- Picture books are great for helping babies and young children learn about the emotions of others, building empathy and early social skills. Book characters express happiness, sadness, anger, surprise, or fear and also show how feelings can change depending on what happens throughout the story.
- Books featuring diverse characters can help babies and young children build a sense of self and identity by enabling them to see themselves and their family and culture represented on the page.
Renae Hayward 