
Reading to your baby Activity
Why do it?
- It’s an opportunity for baby to hear and become familiar with their parents’ voices and the languages they speak.
- Baby is beginning to ‘wire up’ for the language that’s used in their family home.
- It’s an opportunity to develop a way to soothe baby when it needs help settling after birth.
How to do it
- Choose something to read that you enjoy, as it’s likely you’ll be reading it many times.
- If baby has an older sibling, one of their favourite picture books would be a good choice to read to baby. It could be read together — or maybe the sibling could read it to baby themselves?
- Baby’s ears are filled with amniotic fluid, so they hear as if they’re under water. Reading in ‘parentese’ will help baby to hear the story from the womb.
- Parentese is a way of talking — use a higher pitch, speak more slowly and exaggerate vowel sounds.
Using more reo Māori
Kupu | Word |
Kōrero | Talk |
Pukapuka | Book |
Kōrero pukapuka | Read book |
Tuakana | Older sibling of the same sex |
Tungāne | Brother of a girl |
Tuahine | Sister of a boy |
Rongo | Hear |
Whakarongo | Listen |
Harikoa | Happy |
Te whare tangata | Womb |
Mamahutia | To soothe |
Hangaia he pukapuka | Make a book |
Whakahuri te whārangi | Turn the page |