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Baby Brilliant rhymes into reading
By NATALIE SCOTT
Austintown library hosted a Baby Brilliant event Nov. 27 in their children’s meeting room. The Public Library of Youngstwon and Mahoning County has been hosting these events at their library branches to encourage greater reading skills in children of a young age.
The Baby Brilliant event is for children ages 6 months to 2 years. This session is designed to help children form words through repetition, rhyme, and sound association. Librarian Nicole Pahulla began this week’s event by having children and parents sing the rhyme “The More We Get Together.” Pahulla stressed that each song or rhyme used would be done twice so that children had the chance to listen to the sounds used again.
Pahulla then had the group turn its attention to a line of stuffed bears she had set up. The bears were used to read the book “Bears, Bears, Bears” by Bob Barner. After the story, Pahulla allowed each child to take a bear back to their seat. She encouraged children to use the bear in the next set of rhymes — if the rhyme said to touch your foot, the children were asked to touch the bear’s foot.
Pahulla ended the session with play time and talk.
“It’s important to include the social aspect as well,” Pahulla said. “Kids need time to play with other kids and it allows parents to talk to one another too.”