You may think the only benefits of reading to your unborn baby are the relaxation and bonding you feel when sharing reading time with the new life you’re growing.
But science shows that reading to baby in the womb helps develop early language learning. It stimulates emotions in a baby and helps baby react to different stimuli. It also prepares a baby for the life after his birth.
Why Is It Essential to Read to Your Baby?
The stories you read to your baby evoke certain emotions in him. The rhyming lines and the lullabies develop a sense of voice modulation too from an early stage. Many aspects also indicate that reading helps babies to pick up newer words for their vocabulary pretty early in life and make it easier for them to understand the meaning easily. However, when a baby hears the voice in the womb, he becomes alert and responds to it. If you read to your baby daily, he will recognize your voice once he’s out in the real world and this will develop the bond between you and your baby.
Does reading to your unborn baby make her smarter?
Talking, reading, and playing a variety of music can help stimulate baby’s senses and improve her brain development.
Reading is one of the most vital talent a child needs in order to be successful in life. Books are one’s best friend and the early we inculcate this habit, it is excellent for the child. Reading while pregnancy not only increases the knowledge but also helps in making the bond between the mother and the baby stronger. It also triggers better concentration, a good attention span, distressing the mother of her tensions, resulting in a smarter baby.
When should I start reading to my baby in the womb?
Reading at the right time will have considerable effects than just starting at any point. Hence it is extremely crucial to know the precise time to start reading to a baby in the womb. A womb of a mother is more like a play arena from where the baby around 10 weeks starts twisting and turning her body.
Therefore, as you inch closer to completing 23 weeks of your pregnancy towards finishing up the second trimester, your little one will be able to react to your voice and any other actions easily. All of these phases are where the cognitive development of a child is also proceeding rapidly. Enhancing that by listening to the right music and reading stories that benefit him, can work wonders in his development.
Which books are best to read to unborn baby?
If you are struggling to figure out what kind of stories would suit your baby the best, take a simple stroll in the children’s section of any bookstore. You can also use any of the books that are piling up in gift baskets for baby to enjoy when he arrives. Particularly, books with a clear rhythm and perhaps rhyme patterns provide a soothing, almost melodic listening experience. Books similar to those where a baby goes around the world and visits different places can also help instil a feeling of excitement and joy within the little one indirectly.
Benefits of Reading to Your Unborn Baby
- Pregnancy is not just a stressful time for the mother but also for the baby. The baby undergoes a fluctuation in emotions and can feel overwhelmed at times. Indulging in some nice reading activity can help you calm down and your soothing voice can also control the heart rate of your anxious baby and help him relax in your womb.
- The bond between mother and the baby becomes stronger by reading to the unborn baby as the baby starts getting familiar with the mother’s voice and can identify soft and loud tones of music. She feels more relaxed when a soft music is played as it helps in resting due to its comforting quality just like a lullaby, whereas if the baby is sleepy and a loud music is played, it in turns kicks as it dislikes it. Even the father by just participating in reading activity, singing or talking to the baby will help in making the bond stronger.
- By the third trimester, your baby’s ears are ready to hear! While a baby in utero hears what’s going on outside the womb at about 10 decibels lower than you do, the rhythm, melody, and other language patterns that serve as the foundation of speech are actually crystal clear. Wondering what the world sounds like to your baby? Try placing your hand over your mouth and speak. What you hear is very similar to how your voice sounds in the womb!
- Reading together is one of the best things you can do to help your child grow into a reader and a successful learner. Why not start now? Make reading a habit today, so it will be a part of your tomorrow.
