How a felt book becomes baby’s first regular daily appointment

The very notion of time, with its markers of hours and successive moments, remains totally abstract for a very young child during their first months of life. Yet, a baby develops a form of intuitive temporal organization very early on, built not from the time displayed on a clock, but from the regular succession of familiar events.

A stable daily ritual, such as a regular time devoted to the felt book, actively contributes to the construction of this first temporal organization. The baby gradually learns to anticipate this moment, not according to a precise time, but according to its place in the overall sequence of their day.

This temporal anticipation, although rudimentary, constitutes a valuable cognitive skill, preparing the ground for a finer and more abstract understanding of time that will develop over the following years, notably through the notion of routine, and later that of a more formalized schedule.

The fact that this regular appointment is associated with a specific object, such as the felt book, further reinforces this temporal structuring. The object becomes a concrete and tangible marker of this particular moment of the day, considerably facilitating the baby's anticipation and recognition of this landmark.

This early temporal structuring also presents a significant emotional benefit by offering the baby a sense of predictability and control over the flow of their day, a factor recognized as favorable to the overall emotional regulation of the very young child, especially during periods of change or uncertainty.

Parents can also reinforce this structuring by explicitly associating this moment with other markers of the day, for example by verbally mentioning the upcoming sequence: "after your book, we are going to eat," thus gradually building a broader understanding of the logical sequence of the different moments of the day.

It is this discreet but essential contribution to the baby's early temporal structuring that adds an extra dimension to the value of the daily ritual with the felt book, far beyond its sensory, motor, and attentional benefits alone, which are already widely documented.