A little press-and-learn can go a long way
When a baby is born, their main method of communication is to cry to signify that they need attention or special care, As they progress in growth, they will eventually learn to talk which may sound gibberish at first but would eventually lead to proper words.
As children progress in growth, their cognitive skills also develops rapidly, where they’ll soon be memorising and repeating sounds they hear, learning to communicate effectively via verbal and non-verbal actions to grab a parent’s attention.
If you’re an Asian parent, a child’s first words would normally revolve around ‘Mama, Papa, Ayah or Ibu’. We associate these words with the important characters in our children’s lives. When your child has identified the meaning of these words with the characters, we then proceed to teach and associate other words to things around them.
This is where reading plays a vital role in a child’s development. As parents we try to instil the reading habit in him/her at a young age, however many parents struggle to get their kids into the habit of reading - what with them losing interest quickly or seeing the book as a toy.
Nevertheless, we all love a good narrative when it is read aloud - yes including kids as it creates a magical atmosphere!
These days, with the advancement of technology like Youtube and other social media platforms, entertainment and learning has been made easy.
However, there is also the concern of reducing screen time hence some parents have opted for audiobooks as an alternative.
Of course, there is also the question that begs, in ‘how effective are audiobooks?’
BENEFITS OF AUDIOBOOKS
EARLY LITERACY
To facilitate early literacy, we encourage the usage of fun and colourful illustrations as this helps children learn better. Reading would then seem more of a pleasure rather than a chore.
With the advancement of audiobooks that include sounds and music, reading has never been more fun and interactive.
Most audiobooks these days comes with learning objectives and various styles (with the inclusion of illustrations or a narrator) to familiarise children with everyday phrases, vocabulary and sentence structuring. This is to help children improve in the areas below:
- Listening skills - helps children hear the words clearly and expand their vocabulary
- Reading comprehension - improves their memory and understanding
- Pronunciation - helps children learn the spelling and sound of each word
- Imagination - expands their knowledge and way of seeing things around them
- Creativity - encourages them to think out of the box
- Fluency in words - builds confidence in independent reading
- Focus - allows them to concentrate and digest information at their own pace
FINE MOTOR SKILL DEVELOPMENT
Books are also great materials that enhances learning as it involves more than just reading them - especially if they include press-and-learn functions!
The press-and-learn technique is a great method to facilitate learning as it encourages fine motor developmental skills in children such as:
- Turning the pages
- Pointing at word and illustrations
- Body movement with interactive books
- Hand-eye coordination
- Picture tracing
- Sensory development
BABA BAA BOOKS
Reading is a great habit and can be done with audiobooks.Our words books are comprehensively packed with words, numbers and colourful illustrations to ensure children have a fun time learning and interacting!
Designed for great bedtime stories as we know oral storytelling has been around for ages and many ancient folktales have been re-told multiple times over generations, nurturing a bond between the listener and storyteller.
If you have not checked out our press-and-learn audiobooks, now is the time to do so now by clicking here!
