Invite an infant to sit on your lap to read a book. Introduce the book by pointing to the cover and encouraging the infant to look at the picture with you. Example: “See the picture of the red ball? We have a red ball in our room. Our book has pictures of different things we see every day. We can touch and feel some of the pictures! Let’s read our book!” Use the following strategies to look at, touch, and talk about pictures in the book:

• Invite the infant to help you turn the pages of the book. Follow the infant’s preferences for the pace of looking at pictures.
• Point to and name pictured objects. Encourage the infant to feel available textures embedded in the pictures. Example: “Look at the red strawberry! You can touch the shiny seeds on the strawberry! Do you feel them?”
• Draw attention to how different textures feel. Example: “This is a baby doll. The baby doll is wearing a dress. Here, you can touch the doll’s soft dress! How does it feel?”
• Spend more time talking about pictures that seem to be of particular interest to the infant. Offer additional information about pictured characteristics of the item. Examples: “You are looking at the teddy bear. The teddy bear is wearing a striped sweater! Look, he has two fuzzy ears. Would you like to touch the teddy bear’s ears?” “There are spots on the ball. I am pointing to the spots.”
• Describe and respond to gestures and/or vocalizations.
• Help the infant connect book information to his/her own experiences. Examples: “Here is a bowl and spoon. This spoon looks like the spoon you use! You used a spoon this morning to eat your cereal.” “You are smiling and cooing at the cat. You have a cat that lives at your house! You can feel the cat’s whiskers!”
• Recognize infant’s participation in the book reading. Example: “We had fun reading this book together, Avery. You touched the doggy’s soft fur. You pointed to the ball with shiny dots. You smiled and kicked your legs when we looked at the toy car! I think you liked this book.”

Invite an older infant to read a book with you. The infant may wish to sit next to you or stand close while you read. Introduce the book and invite the infant to help you hold the book and turn the pages. A standing infant may want to use one hand to help turn the pages.

Once the infant is comfortable and ready to read, point to the picture on the book cover. Example: “Look at the picture of the red ball. The ball has shiny spots! Our book has pictures of different things that you may know! We can touch some of the pictures. Let’s read our book!” Use the following strategies to share the book:

• Point to and describe objects in the pictures. Encourage the infant to feel available textures embedded in the pictures. Example: “This is a dog. Look, the dog is playing with a toy ball! Here are the dog’s ears. Here is the dog’s tail. Would you like to touch the dog’s soft, curly fur? How does the fur feel?”
• Invite the infant to point to and/or touch objects that you name. Example: “The teddy bear has ears. Where are the teddy bear’s ears? The ears are soft. You can touch the ears!”
• Spend more time talking about pictures that appear to be of particular interest to the infant. Offer more information about pictured characteristics of the item. Example: “You are pointing to the toy car. The car has shiny wheels! I think this car can go fast. Vroom, vroom!”
• Describe and respond to the infant’s gestures and/or vocalizations. Example: “You said ‘meow.’ The kitty cat says ‘meow.’ ‘Meow, meow’ kitty cat!”
• Help the infant connect book information to his/her own experiences. Example: “Look at the two socks. The socks are soft. You can feel them! You have socks too! Your socks are on your feet. Do your socks feel soft? Let’s touch your socks to find out if they feel soft.”
• Recognize infant’s participation in the book sharing. Example: “You helped me hold our book, Mason. We looked at all the pictures. You pointed to the shiny dots on the ball. You touched the teddy bear’s soft ears. We had fun reading this book together.”