We have already talked several times about the importance of seeing books with children, even before they speak their first words. Doing so can be very beneficial for its development, especially those books that include photographs of everyday objects.
A recent study conducted with 30 British babies and published in the magazine Child development states that when babies are 9 months old they are able to recognize an image of a known object in a book. They use the images to obtain information about an object and then recognize the real object.
To prove it, 9-month-old babies were taught for approximately one minute color or black-and-white photographs of a life-size toy. Then, the real toy in the photograph and another toy were placed in front of them.
The toys were presented in two different ways: inside transparent containers and opaque containers.
In the first case, the babies were more likely to try to take the toy that was not in the photo, suggesting that they recognized the toy in the picture and found it less interesting than the real toy.
Instead, when they were taught in opaque containers, they were more likely to try to catch what they had seen in the photograph, which means that they had formed a firm mental image of that toy.
It's funny to know that even before they start talking for themselves, Babies are already able at 9 months to recognize the images of objects they have seen in a book.
So you know. There are beautiful little books with striking and full-color images of everyday objects. Also worthwhile are images of magazines or the famous flashcards.
