Reading to a Squirmy 1 Year Old

Just keep at it. Both my kids had weeks at a time when they wouldn't sit still for books, so I just read as they played. My mom said that is totally normal and to just keep reading as a routine.

I was worried about this too. What I learned is to KEEP READING. He is a boy and so he needs to be on the move, but he is still listening and learning.

If it's any consolation (or fright) to you, mine is now 5 and can't keep completely and fully still for one whole book.

My son is about 13 months old now and has his favorite book. He will sit still for about a minute or two, if I'm lucky, then try to grab the book from me. I try to read it to him at least twice, since the story is so short. At this age, I feel it is important to start the habit, rather then have them sit and listen attentively. I think it will get better as it goes along.

So interesting -- I have never been on this site and was doing a search when I saw this inquiry. Guess I was supposed to see this post and respond.

As an author and Mom to two very active boys (now much older, but I "remember when") I believe books are not necessarily meant to be experienced sitting down. You can start out snuggling together, but let your little one act out all the fun and funny things in the books you are reading. Bring the books alive for your little one.

When I go into schools, the first thing I do is say, "No sitting criss-cross applesauce" today. The kids are so excited with the idea that they get to act out what's happening in my books. I believe that we can convey the magic and joy that resides within their pages or they can simply be thin sheets of dead wood. I tell the children I see that the books are alive and TOGETHER we jump into the books and experience them -- experiential learning rather than stagnant.

There is no "right" way to express your love and joy for books -- and my way certainly is more in synch with moving and having fun than sitting and just listening. Maybe this just one of may times your little guy will be your greatest teacher. You say that he starts squirming after a few minutes. Then, I would say, have fun "squirming" together!

As I tell all the students and little ones I see and read with -- "The Magic is in YOU!" Let your son's magic shine through, relax and enjoy the adventures TOGETHER!!! Rainey

(If you are interested in seeing any of my books, they are at www.Rainey.tv or online games for little ones at www.CiCiandAce.com)

This Amazon link may be useful, as it lists some recommended books for young children.

http://www.amazon.com/Joyous-Board-Books-for-Toddlers/lm/...

I agree that the books should be interactive - pop ups, flaps, etc. - and that there should be few words on a page.

As a mom of four, 3 almost grown and a 4 year old, I know about squirmy kids. I can tell you, though, that you should just read anyway. Let him wiggle and squirm or even move around the room. He'll still benefit from hearing your voice. Do you engage him by asking him questions? Kids his age don't really care what the book actually says. Turn the pages, pointing out the animals or whatever and maybe ask open ended questions like "Can you find the yellow duck?" He may not be able to yet, but then you can point to it and say "There it is! The yellow duck is in the water!" He'll be taking it all in and before you know it he'll be crawling in your lap asking for more!
From C., mom to girls 23 and 21 and sons 15 and 4.

My son is almost 3 now. I remember telling another mother at the library that I thought I was reading to the wall, and the all of a sudden one day he was in my lap, and somewhere around 2 he started to remember phrases in his favorite books.

He still goes through phases where he runs around. I continue reading... as long as he stays near and isn't getting into trouble...

Sometimes when he insists on a book and then runs off, I tell him I am going to pick if he doesn't sit, but for the most part, I go with the flow..

The type of book you are using is very important. A 1 year old doesn't have the attention span to listen to a story. The books should be picure books, interactive books, and books with maybe 1 sentence on each page. The flip books are great, they loving flipping up the flap. Rhyming books are good too. The pictures should be bright and colorful as well. He probably won't be ready to actually listen to a story until he's about 3. But keep books in his life daily - any exposure to books is a huge benefit!

I had one that would sit, and one that would squirm. Reading is very important. My mother suggested that they could still hear the story without sitting still. We tried it, and my squirmer got more out of being read to if he was present, but not necessarly, actively sitting. I could quiz him, and he heard everything.I would recommend no tv or other major distractions. We still read a lot.....even 10 years later. Good luck.

Is he sitting in your lap? My friend's daughter was far sighted and sqirmed to get away because she couldn't see the pages sitting in her mommys lap.

He doesn't necessarily have to sit to benefit from being read to. Simply hearing the words and stories helps children to develop language. When you can get him to sit with you, make a game out of it. Point to objects in the book and name it, then as he gets older ask him to find the ______________. Its amazing how much they absorb indirectly.

Even if your child get up off your lap, continue reading. He can still listen even if he is playing with another toy. Even if you only do one book during a session, that's so good for them.

E., good for you! Reading and reading and reading to and with kids is the very best way to start them off in life! A few ideas:

He's active! So while you definitely want to continue with reading in quiet moments, turn some stories into active play too. Get up on your feet, get him up on his, and hold the book up and read it while you both act it out. Be big, funny and dramatic -- Dr. Seuss just screams for crazy voices and faces! He will soon connect the book in your hand with the fun he's having. Remember to read him lots of poetry too because it really engages kids and helps them learn the sounds of language.

Read to him while he's busy. If he's playing with trucks or trains, you can pull out a truck or train book and read it out loud even if he doesn't seem to be paying lots of attention. Try reading just as if you're reading to yourself. Perhaps you can even start playing with the toys he's not using, following the book's story, yourself -- and see if he gets interested. If he takes the story off to his own little plot, great. Of course there will be many times he'll need to just be left alone to play his way, but this could be occasional fun.

Turn everything into a word experience for him. Reading from a book will come in time. At his age he needs to connect the weird wiggles that are letters with sounds and, well, happy feelings -- so as you go through the store, point out labels and read them; read the recipe out loud as you make a dish and hold up the ingredients (soon he'll be old enough to grab a spoon and empty pot and pretend to cook alongside you); recite poems and nursery rhymes to him in the tub; and sing at every opportunity.

Favor good music CDs and kids' story CDs over TV; "read-along" CDs where there's a book and the kids can listen and follow in the book are good too (though he's probably young for those, for a while yet.)I know there are lots of "teach your child to read early" DVDs and books and programs out there but I think that a lot of adult interaction and talk and reading are the best teachers.

Words can come in any form, not just books, and eventually he'll devour books too!

The little cardboard books are short, sweet and silly enough to keep their attention. We started off with little picture books - my son LOVED "Baby Faces" - a little cardboard book showing baby faces showing different emotions (happy, sad, angry, tired, etc). When he was a little older, he liked "Eddie's Teddy". By the time he was 3 or 4 we were into Dr Seuss and he would memorize how I read them to him, and sometimes he would correct me if I made a mistake.

My best advice is to get him books that are interactive, and I don't necessarily mean electronically. We have a copy of a fairly old board book simply called "Babies". This book fascinates my son (16mo) since he gets to look at illustrations of other babies (always a hit) and he gets to wiggle his toes, touch his nose, and clap his hands right along with the babies in the book. We also have a copy of "Pat the Bunny" which is a time-honored classic that combines reading with sensory exploration for baby and so many more. Any book he can play along with, or touch for new sensations should be able to keep his interest. Also make sure they are appropriate to his attention span. 1 year olds have a pretty short attention span. If they're not interested it's probably about 5 seconds :) and even if they are interested the best you can hope for is about 1-2 minutes. A lot of the books I "read" to him really only have 1 word on each page, a word that describes the picture. Some have as many as 10-15 words per page. You should look for books in this range. Babies want to see what's on the next page and patience isn't really their thing, so keep it moving mom! :)

My daughter is 20 months and does the same thing. That age is just to young to expect him to sit still and listen to you read a book, the wonderful picture you have painted in your head about you reading books to your son should be thrown out the window, this should go with everything you had in mind about having a child, be creative and never expect it to go how YOU want it to go, as women we all paint pretty pictures in our head about how we want our future to be, but this has to be forgotton and live in the now, anyway to your question....
Be Creative:

What I do with my daughter instead of read the pages of the book is point out stuff that is really interesting or things that intrest her, she loves fish, so I buy her fish books and point out all the different colors of the fish and the size of the fish and so forth, instead of actually reading all the words in the book, I make it really short and make up my own words to say. I'ts much less boring that way and children thrive to learn, they love to learn, so teach him things while reading a book instead of reading the words on the page (pretend the words are not there). Also, you can buy books with just pictures and tell your own story, Your child will still love books and eventually love to read, the point now is to get him interested in books not reading, that will come later, for now just get him interested in the books itself, 12 months is too young to get a child interested in reading.

Also ask him (if he talks yet) which book he would like to read, I made up names for the books we have for our daughter, for example I call one books she really likes "the birdy book" and anouther "the fishy book" and I ask her what she wants to read and she will tell me, this helps her with her independence and thought processing, eventually you will get to this point with your son, my daughter loves books, however: I have yet to ever actually read word for word a whole book to her, but no matter she still enjoys it and sits still for 15 min with me while looking at the pages.
Try having him point out things in the book, like colors or shapes or ask him to show you where the "oject" is such as where is the dog? can you point to the dog on the page? This kills two birds with one stone, he learns and you get to relax while he is sitting still learing

Also, even though she is only 20 months old I take her to the library and let her pick out books and look at them, then when we take them home she is so excited because she picked them out and now there at our house, to her that is really exciting, try the library, you will feel silly at first because he is so young, but who cares, he will get used to it and come to think of it as a place of fun and comfort.

hope this helps

Hi, E.!
I am also a self-proclaimed bookworm, and want my children to have the same love of reading that I have. Had the same issues you are with my now almost 3 year old...I had also tried taking him to story-time at our local library with disastrous results -yes I am that Mom who has to carry her screaming child out of the library. My wonderful SIL gave me the best advice-that I can't force my kids to be what I want, can only help to guide them, they're going to be whoever they are.

So, I switched from the storybooks to the shorter board books, let him flip the pages at his own speed and stopped trying to make sure we "finished: the story. Whenever he closed the book, that was it, kiss, kiss, time to sleep. Little by little, he settled down and started getting into the stories. Also, took him to different library (near Grandma's house) and he LOVED it!!!
He's still squirmy from time to time, but we are now able to get most of the way thru a regular story before he starts moving around, sometimes he even asks for another story. However, I do find that he will sit quietly and "read" to himself a lot more often these days, especially before bedtime.
Don't know if any of this helps, just wanted you to know you're not alone...

Take care!

in my opinion you are doing great - keep it up, every little bit helps; i would lay my boys down in bed, either curl up next to them or sit in a chair next to them when they were still in the crib and read to them; that way we both could relax and enjoy the book...i have also given them books to read and look at while i read to them from another book; my oldest is 9 and an avid reader; my 6 yr old is excited about learning to read and always has books around and my 2 yr old is getting there :) good luck!

Hi E.. I recently discovered from a speech therapist and pediatrician that the best way to read to a baby or toddler at this age is not to read every word and flip the pages, but to open to a picture, point at all the things you see, and label what you see including nouns, verbs and adjectives. For example, the page might read: Harry rode the bus to school and saw 5 brown dogs walking in the park. You could point to the dogs and say, "Look at the brown dogs! What does a doggie say? He goes bark bark bark! What else do we see? There's a yellow school bus. The wheels on the bus go round and round... " You could put the book aside to sing and do finger play with your child, then return to the book later. They have such short attention spans, we can't expect them to stay interested for more than a minute at a time until they're 2 or 3 years old, so rather than getting through the story, try to focus on labeling all the things in the pictures. Encourage him to point at what you see, make animal or machine noises and eventually try to say the words.

Hi E.~
I had the same problem with my boys. My older one, now 4 1/2, used to run around the room as I read books to him. If I stopped, he's stop and ask what was wrong... when I started reading again, he'd be off. He wanted to hear the words and look at the pictures, but on his terms. He's now in preschool and almost reading himself. If you say the wrong words, even if he's never read that book, he'll say, "Wait, where does it say that? I don't see those letters!" For him, it was just how he liked to play. He always wanted me to read to him (still does!) and now he sits still for chapter books with very few pictures sometimes. (We read Tale of Despereaux before we saw the movie... he loved it... and we got to compare the two.)

Bottom line is, I think children learn differently from one another, and sometimes differently than we would expect. Keep reading! ;)

~J.

First i suggest really decorative books. With lots of bright pictures that are only a few pages. If he will only handle books with 2 pages get some with say 3 pages and try to keep for the extra page. When he sets for the 3 pages easily go to 4 pages and so on. Next thing is make sure it's got pictures of things he's interested in Brightly colored Trucks or maybe dogs if he likes them. At this point it's not the reading that's important it's the connection between you and him while the book is open in front of you. Meaning you don't have to read a work in it. Just point at pictures, say words and focus on the book it's self. Next limit the book time to just before bed while your relaxing. Don't suggest it during the day at nap time and stuff. Too much of a good thing is also true. You don't want him to think you are forcing it on him. Since he's not used to it yet in his opinion your forcing something he doesn't like or know about yet. Good luck

My son is 18 months and is the same way! Sometimes he will sit and let me read to him and others he is too busy wondering what daddy is doing now that he is home from work. I try to do it before bed time which is a good idea. Also if you give him a bath before bed time try doing it once he is in his pjs and before he goes to bed. I give my son a bath at night before bed and most of the time when he sits and lets me read to him is in between getting out of the bath and going to bed. But don't woory he will get better!! Good luck!

I was having problems reading to my daughter at that age too. Her teacher told me some easy steps to get her to listen. First you have to get him interested in the book. Sit with the book and talk about what is in the picture. Ask him to find certain objects. (Do you see a cat? Where is the cat?) Then ask him what is the object doing? You can also just read one sentence from each page. Or skip pages. Most kids won't actually sit and listen to a story until they are much older. My daughter is almost four and still won't sit still for a whole book!!

My daughter was the same way at 1 (she's now 2.5) We just kept reading aloud to her while she played in her room. I couldn't take her to the library because she would sit still there either. So, we just kept reading to her and she'd look at the pictures and walk away and come back. She now sits on my lap and listens to longer stories (10-20 story books.) Just be patient and keep reading; he's benefiting just by hearing your voice and will eventually be more interested in sitting to read with you.

At that age I try to do simple board books with pictures of objects they can begin to recognize and name. Most kids will not sit for a full "story", even if short, so maybe just pointing at objects in the book and naming them will get him to sit longer. Also make up your own story to the pictures, one sentence per page, sometimes works better than trying to read the book as written.
Babies also like repetition, so try doing hte same books over and over again so he will learn to know tham and be excited to see his favorite books come out.
Best of luck,

Don't get to caught up in all the words on the page. I read to both my children who can be squirmy at times as well. I make them part of the story. Instead of reading the words we talk about whats on the pages, the colors, etc. Let him hold the book and pretend that he is reading. When they begin to read they start by looking at the pictures to tell the story until they can learn the vocabulary. I would think the most important thing is that you don't make it a big deal. Make it fun and exciting and if its only for five minutes here and there then that is great.

Hello! Well I am a mom and a full time teacher and one thing that I do with my 18 month old is give him his milk and sit down with his books. He pays attention while he sits in my lap and drinks his milk. He even points and talks while I read. Another I do is when we go to a store with books in it and I bring him in the section, I make sure to buy 1 or 2 of the books that points to or picks out. I even buy ones that he may not understand, becuase something sparked his interest in it. I let him take books in the crib at night time or nap time, he likes to look at the pictures and talk to his books. One other thing I do is put everything else away and go to a place in the house where he might not be as excited to get up and go get something else (out of sight out of mind, kind of thing) and read to him then.
He is pretty excited about books. I buy pop up ones, interactive ones, foamy ones, squishy ones, etc.

Good luck,
R.

While cuddle time is important, its okay to read to your child while he plays too. Pick fun rhyming books for this type of read-aloud. Sandra Boynton books are perfect for this age. To slowly increase his attention span pick one book to read over a one week span. Read until he wants to get down and then let him down and finish the book. The next day start at the beginning and read until you get one page further than the day before and let him down (unless he wants to stay on your lap longer). Continue daily until you are able to read the book in its entirety with him on your lap. Other ideas include giving him a toy or stuffed animal to hold while listening to you read and making sure you are reading age-appropriate books. (i.e. not too long, too many words, too large of vocabulary, etc.) Hope this helps...from another bookworm who loves reading to her kids :) (and a former teacher.)

I would let him enjoy what he can comprehend from a book at this age. Don't expect him to pay attention or understand the story from start to finish. Maybe just point out the pictures for him to learn the objects, colors, or sounds from different pages :)

Hi E.,

I know you already received a lot of responses and probably this one, too. My girls LOVE books, but they don't always sit still for them (and they are almost 3 and 3 1/2 now). They were 5 mos and 15 mos when we got them, and we had LOTS of board books. We let them be just another toy in the room (paper is too easy to tear and eat). They both loved and still love to pull out books (now real ones with pages) and turn the pages and point to pictures to identify, letters, and tell stories that vaguely resemble the story written in the book itself. Just turning the pages of a board book is actually a learned skill, so don't worry about the story yet. Make it about the book itself. When he learns to love the books, then he will learn that there is cool stuff inside...By the way, by the time my youngest was 18mos, she was identifying all the letters in her ABC book. Now she can spell words if you sound them out for her. Not up to reading, but getting there...

Good luck, he will settle down and enjoy them, too.

S.

Try reading classic nursery rhymes. The sing-song nature is better for that age, and it will foster the start of an appreciation for poetry. I used the "Pitty-Patty-Polt" one every time I put shoes on my son, it turned that chore into a game. A.A. Milne wrote some wonderful poetry for children, which can be used later. But for a one year old, you can't beat the old nursery rhymes.

Some examples:

"Ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross, to see a fine lady upon a white horse. With rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, she shall have music where ever she goes."

"Pitty-Patty-Polt. Shoe the wild colt. Here a nail, there a nail, Pitty-Patty-Polt."

"To market, to market, to buy a fat pig. Home again, home again, jiggety jig. To market, to market, to buy a fat hog. Home again, home again, jiggdty jog."

Find a good Mother Goose nursery rhymes book and have fun with the rhymes, you may find yourself swaying and singing as you read them!

Hi E.,
I don't know if you've tried this yet, but you can let him either hold the book and you turn the pages, or you can hold the book while he turns the pages. Another idea is to get some books with textured (touch and feel)pages, so he can feel it while you read. Or, the skip the story for now and help him identify the objects on the page. Hope this helps.

Involve him in the reading-Just listening is hard for little ones. When we started to read we started with short books and played games as we read. Alot of I spy- When they are little it is easy to pick a color and spy the same one on each page to teach them colors, or animals- My older boys are 3 and 5 and book worms. they love to sit down with books and just look at the pages and they will play I spy together when I can't read with them right away. Both started asking me to teach them to read when they were around two- So we work on sounds now. In short we tried to make it as fun as possible, using their fingers to point at picture as we described things and play games with the book.

Good Luck

Hi E.!
I have had the same thing happen with my now 17 month old. We read to him at night and during the day at times. He has a hard time sitting still, but it is worth it just for those few moments to sit and read to him because now he loves books! He'll get his books and walk around the house and babble as if he is reading to himself, which he started around 16 months. It is so cute. Hope that helps.