Brain Development research and Bookstart Bump
Bookstart Bump is a pilot project to support professionals and vulnerable mothers to-be to achieve the best outcomes for children by encouraging sharing books, songs and rhymes with babies in the womb and in early years.
“A review of behavioural and brain development in the early years: the “toolkit” for later book-related skills” was commissioned by Booktrust from Birkbeck University in 2014. One of the key recommendations of the report is the “starting to share books at 3 to 4 months may be particularly appropriate”.
It’s important that the messaging about the optimal time to start sharing books doesn’t make the focus on supporting parents with books, songs and rhymes ante-natally and with new-born babies seem unnecessary or against our own advice.
Key points to bear in mind
- The research states there is evidence “indicating that children can remember the tune and sounds of language quite early, and even prenatally. Newborns are able to extract information from rhymes and songs”
- The advice for starting to share books at 3-4 months is based on children’s vision, attention and dexterity.
- Bookstart Bump focuses on parent’s confidence in sharing books, songs and rhymes and introduces the idea of talking and reading with your baby before the birth of the baby and as a new born. The importance of communication is being shared with women in the second trimester- suggested as a key time to share information with women during pregnancy.
- The research recommendation is based on how much they can get out of the physical books- focusing on the images and exploring them as objects.
- Bookstart Bump focuses on the importance of communicating with your baby and uses books, songs and rhymes as a tool to facilitate this.
- The research also states there is “no evidence against reading stories before 12 months” but that the babies will not be following the story, rather “using this shared activity to build social routines and to begin their journey towards understanding language and vocabulary”
Recent research also suggests reading to infants and showing them pictures had a positive effect on their cognitive development at 9 months. However, the more informal activity of frequently talking to the infant while doing other things, had a much more substantial positive effect. “The findings highlight the potential of reading and talking to infants, not just for language and literacy development but also for other aspects of cognitive development.” Bookstart Bump encourages this regular talking as well as book sharing, songs and rhymes.