Encourage your child's development at home

Here are a few tips for promoting healthy development:

• Be warm and loving and pay attention to your child.
• Respond to the child's cues and clues.
• Talk, read, and sing to your child.
• Establish routines and rituals.
• Encourage safe exploration and play.
• Make TV watching selective.
• Use discipline as an opportunity to teach.
• Recognize that each child is unique.
• Choose quality child care and stay involved.
• Take care of yourself

Source: I Am Your Child Foundation

Read Aloud to Your Child

Quite simply, reading aloud is the best way to make sure that your child will learn to read on his own and develop a love for reading and books. Reading does this —and so much much more.

Reading aloud creates an interest in books and learning. The more you read to their children, the better readers your children will become. And like anything else, the better you get at it, the more you like it. The more you like it, the more you do it. None of this happens without an adult planting the seeds of interest, and this can't be done without reading aloud.

When you read aloud to your childred, you are telling them that you value literacy. You are also showing that you value spending time with them sharing a story, a Mother Goose rhyme, or a poem. Children crave quality time with their parents, and sharing a picture book is the perfect opportunity to do just that.

Source: Modified from “Why You Should Read Aloud to Your Child,” Leslie Barban, Richland County Public