Building a Baby Registry, Part 1: Books

Books for Speech and Language Development

Hello, parents, caregivers, and parents-to-be! 

As a speech-language pathologist and soon-to-be first-time mom, I’m thrilled to kick off a new blog series from Garden State Speech Therapy on must-haves and helpful toys, books, activities, and supplies that support your infant’s development.

If you’re a new parent-to-be like I am, building a baby registry can be overwhelming. With so many options available, it’s essential to choose items that not only entertain your baby but also nurture their growing communication skills.

Whether you are creating a registry, making a holiday shopping list, or just looking for new and fun activities to try with your baby, stay tuned for recommendations from our multidisciplinary team! 

Today’s post will focus on book recommendations to support your infant’s speech and language development.

What are the benefits of reading to my baby?

Reading books with your baby is one of best things you can do to support their overall development, including speech, language, attention, and vision. Research has even shown that reading to children as part of their bedtime routine supports better sleep! Reading aloud to your infant is a great way to share in an activity together, promote bonding, encourage cognitive development, and lay a strong foundation for communication and literacy skills.

High-Contrast Books

High-contrast books with black-and-white shapes patterns and stripes are great for infants. Because the retina is not fully developed in infants, this can help to stimulate visual skills. As infants grow and develop, high-contrast books with one photograph or drawing per page are a great choice. These visually stimulating patterns can capture and hold a baby’s attention, encouraging them to focus and explore the images further. This is not only enjoyable for babies but also supports their cognitive development as they grow their attention span and learn to process visual information.

Books with Faces

Babies love to look at faces! Research has even indicated that babies are able to visually process faces before they are able to process objects. Books featuring real-life photographs of people’s faces, from infants to adults, making different expressions are a great way to encourage  visual skills and encourage imitation.

Durable Books

Books that are durable and waterproof allow babies to explore with multiple senses, including through looking, touching, and mouthing. There are so many great books that are soft, flexible, drool-proof, chew-proof, rip-proof, washable and nontoxic. Encouraging multi-sensory exploration is important as this is how babies learn and interact with the world around them. Soft books offer an additional layer of safety as babies often have difficulty with grading their movements, so accidentally hitting or dropping a soft book on themselves will not result in any tears or injuries! 

Song Books

Babies love to listen to songs, rhymes, and music! This helps promote “pre-linguistic” skills that build the foundation for language and emotional development. Singing with a child, especially songs that have finger play such as Itsy Bitsy Spider or Wheels on the Bus, encourages listening, vocabulary, and attention skills. When we can pair a book with a song, it helps grow vocabulary development even more! 

Nowadays, song books are not limited to the classic nursery rhymes. See examples such as One Love (Bob Marley), Sweet Child O’ Mine (Guns N Roses), and Don’t Stop (Fleetwood Mac). These are a great way to share your favorite music with your baby!

Baby Sign Language Books

Research has shown that exposure to sign language can positively impact language development in infants. Babies often develop the physical ability to communicate through gestures before they can articulate words. By introducing simple signs like “more,” “milk,” and “sleep” through sign language books, parents provide babies with a means to express their needs and desires before they can speak verbally. This early form of communication can reduce frustration for both babies and caregivers, helping to grow a strong bond and increasing positive interactions.

Lift-The-Flap and Interactive Books

Lift-the-flap and interactive/sensory books are some of my favorites for so many reasons. These books provide opportunities for babies to interact with the book, build anticipation, and learn about their environment through multi-sensory exploration and cause-effect. Books that offer different textures can help babies grow their vocabulary through learning descriptive words while experiencing the tactile feedback themselves! 

Repetitive Books

Repetitive texts are one of my favorite ways to help grow early speech and language development. As babies grow familiar with the book, they will become more confident in participating during “reading,” such as finishing a sentence or making a sound effect with you as you read. Repetitive books also help grow babies’ attention span and cognitive development. 

Books for Labeling

By 24 months, a toddler should have between 200-300 words in their vocabulary, and most of these words will be nouns to label objects and people in their environment. Books that focus on labeling vocabulary are a great way to give your baby a head start on growing their ability to identify nouns! 

Books that Focus on Environmental/Animal Sounds 

Imitation is one of the most important foundational speech and language skills. Babies and toddlers are more likely to imitate silly sounds and animal noises before they imitate “real” words. These sounds are often modeled by parents with an exciting intonation during fun play or book activities, which means babies are more motivated to attend to and imitate the sounds they hear! Sounds like these can be easier–and more fun–to repeat than traditional words, so there is a good chance these kinds of sounds will be the first kind of intentional speech sounds your baby will produce, after cooing and babbling. 

References

Cooper, S. (2010). Lighting up the brain with songs and stories. General Music Today, 23(2), 24–30.
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ879202 

Pino MC, Giancola M, D'Amico S. The Association between Music and Language in Children: A State-of-the-Art Review. Children (Basel). 2023 Apr 28;10(5):801. doi: 10.3390/children10050801. PMID: 37238349; PMCID: PMC10216937. 

‍Fenson, L., Marchman, V. A., Thal, D. J., Dale, P. S., Reznick, J. S., & Bates, E. (2007). MacArthur-Bates communicative development inventories (2nd ed.). Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.).

https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/index.html

‍Hagan, J. F., Shaw, J. S., & Duncan, P. (Eds.). (2008). Bright futures: Guidelines for health supervision of infants, children, and adolescents (3rd ed.). Elk Grove Village, IL: American Academy of Pediatrics. https://brightfutures.aap.org/Bright%20Futures%20Documents/BF4_POCKETGUIDE.pdf

‍Language development: Speech milestones for babies. Mayo Clinic website. 
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/infant-and-toddler-health/in-depth/language-development/art-20045163

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1048371308316414?journalCode=gmtb

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00948/full