Why "reading" to a baby is already building their future relationship with books

The relationship an older child has with books, whether it stems from a spontaneous, enthusiastic interest or, conversely, relative indifference, never comes from nowhere: it is built gradually, from the very first months of life, through all the experiences shared around books, however modest they may be.

This early development largely takes place outside of any explicit awareness, both for the parent and for the child themselves. Every moment spent handling a felt book, every instant of shared complicity over its pages, silently contributes to shaping this future relationship, without either protagonist being fully aware of it at the time.

This mechanism of gradual construction explains why the attitude adopted by parents during these very first moments takes on particular importance. A moment experienced with constraint, pressure, or boredom leaves a different impression than a moment experienced with pleasure, freedom, and complicity, even if the apparent content of the activity remains the same.

The felt book, by its inherently playful nature and lack of performance pressure, naturally favors this second type of positive experience. The baby has nothing to succeed at, nothing to prove, simply the chance to explore and enjoy the moment—a posture particularly favorable to building a lastingly positive relationship with books.

This early relationship, built long before the child can understand the meaning of words, nonetheless lastingly influences their future motivation toward learning to read, as a child who has already positively associated books with pleasure generally approaches this learning with more enthusiasm than a child without such prior experience.

By being aware of this early, invisible process, parents can pay particular attention to the emotional quality of every moment shared around a felt book, knowing that these instants, however trivial they may seem, actively contribute to shaping their child's future relationship with books.

It is this awareness of the importance of these very first moments that fully justifies the attention paid to the choice and use of the felt book—not as a simple toy among others, but as one of the very first links in a long chain that will lead, years later, to a calm and enthusiastic relationship with books.