Bedtime and At the Park are two books from the Small Talk series by speech experts Nicola Lathey and Tracey Blake. Published by Campbell Books, an imprint of Pan Macmillan, and illustrated by Ailie Busby.
These books have been designed to assist children in learning to talk during the stage of language development from birth to 2 years. They focus on repeating and encouraging different sounds whilst also following sweet and engaging stories.
Each book follows a baby as they do usual baby things; going to the park and getting ready for bed, all things that little ones will relate to and recognise. Every thing the baby does is accompanied by the parents talking to them and making sounds, but what makes these stories unique is the emphais on prompting the baby to copy them:
“Daddy says, Look a car. Brumm brumm! Your turn… Brumm brumm!”
“Mummy says, vest off… nappy off. Your turn… Off, off, off!”
Bright and colourful illustrations will fascinate little ones as you read the story, they are full of objects and animals that they will have fun spotting too. Many of the words and sounds are also illustrated with actions for you and your baby to copy. I taught my boys a few signs when they were very young and really saw the benefit in them being able to communicate before they were able to vocalise a specific word. My one-year-old can ask for food, a drink, milk, and even tell me something is cold all through signs which I always pair with the word for him to hear.
The pages are thick and sturdy, perfect for small hands to turn. My son can flick through and find his favourite page in At the Park, when the family dog has covered Daddy and baby in mud, “Uh-oh!”
The last double page of each book looks back over the story and highlights the ways the parents talk and interact with their baby that supports their language development.
Repetition is key to helping young children learn, understand and develop and the repetitive lines and sounds create a lovely rhythm to the stories. These are beautiful books that children will love to read again and again, which of course creates some more brilliant repetition!
You can find more tips and information on helping your child learn to talk on the Small Talk website here.
And this is where books are so important, they teach so many things, these look like they could be a great help to little ones. Thanks for sharing with #ReadWithMe
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They’re great for parents too as it’s easy to forget how early speech develops #readwithme
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These sound very cute and a great way to learn. Even my little nephew is a bit old for these, but I do have another nephew on the way, so I will have to remember them for him!
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They’d make a perfect new baby present 🙂 #readwithme
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This is the second Campbell book review I’ve read today so I checked out their website. Their books look fantastic for toddlers 🙂
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They’re beautiful aren’t they, so bright and colourful #readwithme
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We have these too but BookBairn hasn’t taken to them unfortunately. I’ll have to save them for baby number two instead! #readwithme
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Fingers crossed your new little one will enjoy them, they’re so sweet #readwithme
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These look and sound great, especially for development #readwithme
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Yes it’s a great idea for a book and I love that the stories and pictures are a joy on their own #readwithme
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these are lovely. I’ve recently had some Campbell books and all three of my kids have loved them x
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They make some beautiful books don’t they, I think we need some more #readwithme
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I’d never heard of these books but they sound really good.
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They’re lovely, such sweet books #readwithme
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They look like lovely first books. I remember when my kids were younger they always used to have a favourite page in their books.
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It’s funny isn’t it, I always wonder what it is about little details that they love so much 🙂 #readwithme
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