Best Baby & Toddler Books for Fall for Language Development
Here are my favorite books to read with baby during the fall! Reading themed-books are a great way to expose your little one to new vocabulary. Shared book reading is an evidenced-based practice to increased the number of words your little one is exposed to. Reading one picture book per day with your child can expose them to an estimated 78,000 words each a year , that they might not typically be exposed to in standard parent-child conversations. By reading books repeatedly, you are helping your child solidify their understanding of the new words they are exposed to. Exposing your child to the new words in the “real world” when possible, helps solidify these new words even further! Remember, your child must understand a new word before they are able to use the new word. Sign up for my monthly early-language activity guide to get daily tips and activities to expand your baby and toddler’s language skills.
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Lift-the-flap book’s are a great way to get your baby interacting with the book. Work on receptive language skills, such as, “Open the…”, “Where’s…”, “turn the page,” as well as expressive language skills such as responding to yes/no questions (e.g. “Is that Spot?”) and “Who/what did we find?”
Go on an adventure with Duck and Goose as they find a pumpkin. Work on yes/no questions with your little one as you read this story. Target preposition words, such as in, up, under, and on top, and adjectives like big, orange, and heavy. Read this story before you take your toddler to the pumpkin patch!
This fall-themed take on the classic, “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” by Michael Rosen, can help you teach your toddler prepositions, like under, over, through, and across, adjectives, like tall, dark, and cold, and verbs, like climb, row, come on, and let's go! You can also expose them to learning about different types of trees and leaves. This book also has a lot of fun sound effects you can make together — huff puff, squish squash, swoosh, splish splash, plip plop! Read this book before going on your own leaf hunt with your toddler!
“Leaf Man” is a gorgeously illustrated book that uses images of leaves to create the pictures. Use this book to foster imagination skills. Talk about what you see in each picture with your toddler or preschooler. Pretend to be the wind and blow the leaves on each page. Read this book before or after going on a nature hunt with your kiddo. Get inspired by the pictures in “Leaf Man” and create your own masterpiece!
This is another cute lift-the-flap book that keeps your baby engaged in the story and introduces Halloween vocabulary. You can work on following directions with, “Open the…” or “Look behind the…” and understanding prepositions behind, under, and in. You can also target sound effects, including meow, boo, and yum. For toddlers starting to put 2-3 words together, you can target some fun phrases, such as fuzzy black cat, friendly ghost, happy bats, and pointy witch’s hat.
This is a “spooky” Halloween take on the classic song, “If You’re Happy and You Know It”! Practice following directions with action words and learning body parts. You can also use the cloze statements strategy with this one. Once your little one is familiar with this story, pause before saying the last word of one of the repetitive sentences. For example, “If you’re sneaky and you know it and your really want to show it, if you’re sneaky and you know it nod your…” pause and wait, while looking expectantly at your child, gesture towards your head, and see if they fill in the last word, “head!”
Learn about the change of seasons from summer to fall with your favorite caterpillar. Expose your child to fall vocabulary, such as cool, weather, leaves, sweater, pinecones, acorns, pies, pumpkin patch, hay bales, and scarecrow, and descriptive words, such as fades, dazzle, bold, cozy, prickly, scurry, and bustling.
Help your little one prepare for school by learning about school day routines and activities.
Read this unique book with your baby or toddler! Work on following directions. Model the direction for your toddler if they do not yet do it independently. While this book does not always describe the pictures, you can talk about what you see on each page. Use the carrier phrase, “I see…” and let your toddler fill in what they see, such as leaf, bird, yellow leaf, flower, or snow.
Another cute lift-the-flap book to target following directions , prepositions, and fall vocabulary! Practice answering simple “where” questions with your toddler, such as, “Where is the squirrel?” For younger toddlers, your child may just point to the squirrel. For older toddler they may verbally respond, “tree,” or, “in the tree.” If you think your toddler might be able to respond, but doesn’t independently, try giving two verbal choices while pointing as you say each choice, for example, “In the grass [point to the grass] or in the tree [point to the tree]?” and see if your toddler responds!
This cute story follows the main character as she thanks all of the things that make it possible for her to make apple cake. This is a great book to practice cloze statements with, once your toddler is familiar with the book. For example, read, “Thank you flower, thank you…” and wait for your child to fill in the next word (“bee”). If your child needs a little help, point to the picture of the bee and wait to see if they fill in the blank. This can be repeated throughout the story.
Another familiar lift-the-flap book with baby to target following directions , prepositions, and Thanksgiving vocabulary! Have your child practice answering simple “where” questions, such as, “Where are the apples?” For younger toddlers, your child may just point to the apples. For older toddler they may verbally respond, “basket,””in the basket,” or, “behind the gate.” If you think your toddler might be able to respond, but doesn’t independently, try giving two verbal choices while pointing as you say each choice, for example, “in the tree” [point to the tree] or in the basket [point to the basket]?” and see if your toddler responds! You can also practice yes/no questions by having your toddler respond to the questions that are already in the story.
This book goes through many activities that often occur around Thanksgiving time. After each page, talk about a time your toddler did this activity, or about when they are going to do that activity this year. For example, say, “Look they’re going on the airplane to visit cousins! We are doing that this year, too. We’re going on a airplane to see your cousins Maddie and Joey,” or, “Look he’s helping his mommy shop for food just like you do!” If you have pictures of your child and family doing any of these activities, show them to your toddler before or after reading this book. Showing your child pictures can help them start to learn to talk about things that happened in the past.
This is a quick little story that talks about saying thank you to your family and friends, and being grateful for them. You can further describe the pictures on each page, and talk about what the people are doing. After the story you can talk about five things you and your little one are thankful for by counting them on your fingers.
This book has a fun little turkey puppet that you and your toddler can make wiggle around while you read/sing this book. Your toddler can practice following directions to follow along with the dance moves, and dance like a turkey!
This story is about the importance of being thankful, and giving back to friends, family, and people in your community. It also demonstrates how the act of being kind and giving can have a ripple effect. After reading this story with your little one, bake something for a neighbor, or have your little one help you choose food or clothes to donate to those in need in your community.
“Turkey Gobble” is an interactive book that introduces traditional Thanksgiving foods your toddler might encounter at Thanksgiving dinner. Talk about each food, what it looks like, what it might feel like, and help the turkey try each food. Talk about what new foods your toddler might get to see, smell, and taste at Thanksgiving. You can make silly sound effects while the turkey tries each food (e.g. nom nom nom!).
This cute story with adorable illustrations teaches about how trees grow from acorns. While you read this story you can expose your toddler to new vocabulary such as, notice, nestle, sheltered, faded, underground, peculiar, sprout, roots, sunbeams, unfurled, weaved, breezy, and scurried. You can add motions, such as stretching your arms up each time the acorn and tree grow. You can also teach sequence words, like first, then, next, and last, such as seeing the different stages of the acorn growing into a tree, and the different seasons.
Check back for more fall-themed books through November!
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