Babies Love Books

dlr Babies Love Books is a book gifting scheme brought to you by dlr Libraries. Every child born in the county of Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown is entitled to collect a free book bag at their local library. The scheme encourages parents and children to read together from birth. Sharing books and stories with your child has lots of wonderful benefits and it is never too early or too late to start. Reading books together can develop your child’s language skills, boost your child’s confidence and help them to feel more relaxed. It can encourage your child to draw and write and studies have shown that the greater the child’s experiences of books and language are, the greater the chance of reading fluency and range of vocabulary. Plus it’s great fun for parent and child!

The Baby Bag contains either an English or Irish language book, an information leaflet about the scheme as well as tips and suggestions for reading to babies and young children. It also contains an invitation to join the library (for free) so that baby and family can enjoy many more colourful board books, picture books, cds, dvds, audio and e-books to suit all tastes, interests and age ranges. The dlr Library branch network is a wonderful resource for both parents and their children with many libraries also provide weekly storytelling sessions for young children. Dalkey and Dundrum Libraries host weekly Parent and Toddler sessions.

The benefits of reading to babies are well documented and it is never too early or late to start. Reading books together can develop language skills, boost a young child's confidence and help them to feel more relaxed. Shared reading can encourage children to draw and write and studies have shown that the greater the child’s experiences of books and language are, the greater the chance of reading fluency and range of vocabulary. Reading together can also be an important bonding experience for parent and child.

dlr Libraries are grateful to all the staff in Dublin South and Dublin South East Health Centres who have so enthusiastically joined forces with us on this project.