STLMoms Parents As Teachers Tip - Your Baby Is All Ears!

Even before birth, your child is listening to what you say and the sounds around her. What babies and toddlers hear every day makes an impact on how they learn language and even paves the way to learn to read.

The National Center for Parents as Teachers offers some ideas of what you can do to help your child learn to listen on the road to reading:

* Be sure you have your child's attention when you talk.


* Sit or squat down to make eye contact with him on his level.

* Be alert for ear infections and treat them promptly. Chronic ear infections can affect language and speech development.

* Pronounce words the way adults do so your child will know what is correct.

* Use a higher voice and speak slowly to create speech sounds that babies best listen to and learn from.

* Use funny voices when reading a story to hold your child's interest.

* Ask your child to predict what will happen in a story.

* Model good listening for your child.