Reading to a Restless Toddler
While toddlers often have trouble sitting still to listen to a book, don't give up on reading together.
Q: Shall I give up trying to read to my toddler, since she really cannot sit still for a story?
A: Some children have very high activity levels. Indeed, when a child keeps on having difficulties sitting still in class in elementary school, teachers often become worried. While your child is still a toddler, it is not clear that she will always have this very high activity level. So try to work around her energy requirements. First off, realize that this is one aspect of her personality. She needs to have lots of opportunity to move!
Take your toddler for walks in the park. Be sure you let her run around a lot, even at home. She may enjoy just running from one room to another all around your house. Be sure you pick her up for a big hug and kiss when she runs back to the place where you are.
If you give your toddler the sense that she is OK as she is — high activity level and all — she may be more cooperative with you when you want her to sit for a while and enjoy a picture book story.
Make sure she is well fed and has had lots of opportunity to use up energy. Lure her to a cozy couch and pile the books you may choose from to arouse her interest. Choose books with few pages at first. Then when you finish reading a book with her, you can close the cover and exclaim with pleasure, "We read a whole book together!"
Find out what your child's special interests are. Some toddlers love animals. Some love dinosaurs. Some love trucks, trains, buses, and cars. Find books with large colorful pictures that you know will capture your child's interest.
Don't worry about reading just what is in the book. Use varied voice tones and excitement in your voice to focus your energetic child's interest as you describe and explain about the pictures. If your child comments or points, let her talk in the middle of your book reading (or book sharing). As you engage her animated interest in books, she will be far more willing and even enthusiastic to come and settle in for her special reading times with you.
Alice Sterling Honig, PhD, a professor emerita of child development at Syracuse University, is the author of many books on infants and toddlers, including Behavior Guidance for Infants and Toddlers and, with H. Brophy, Talking With Your Baby: Family as the First School
