How to Help | Reading Milestones | Books for Babies |
Song & Rhymes | Video Clips

Reading to babies sparks their brain development and creativity. It helps them succeed later when they enter school. And, it's a fun and unique bonding opportunity for parents and their babies.

Thanks to research over the last decade, we now know a lot about how babies grow and develop their early language and literacy skills. Here are some of the facts:

• Babies begin to learn language from birth. Reading aloud exposes children to the sounds of human speech.
• By the age of two, children understand between 300-500 words and can speak about 50-200 words. Children who are spoken to and read to frequently have larger vocabularies and develop into better readers.
• Sharing books with your baby lays the foundation for learning to read.

How to Help »

Download Brooklyn Reads to Babies brochure. 

Learn more about BPL's award-winning early literacy campaign Brooklyn Reads to Babies...

Illustrations © copyright 2001 by Marla Frazee from EVERYWHERE BABIES by Susan Meyers. Reproduced by permission of Harcourt, Inc.