5 Types of Books to Support Your Toddler's Language Development

There are SO many benefits to reading to your baby and toddler. It can be a beautiful time to bond with your child and most importantly, it is such a wonderful time for modelling words and supporting their language development!

You can read more about the benefits of reading to your baby here.

When it comes to choosing toddler books, it can be a bit overwhelming! Read on to find out more about my 5 favourite types of books that your toddler will love AND are great for supporting their speech and language development too. As a physiotherapist offering therapy services in Perth, I often share these book ideas with families to support communication milestones at home.

1. Touch and Feel Toddler Books to Boost Pre-Language Skills

Touch and Feel Books are a great option as your toddler will love exploring and feeling the textures on the page, which will hold their interest too as you're reading!

They are also great for modelling actions for your toddler to copy (remember that copying actions is an important 'pre-language skill' that comes before copying sounds and words! Read more about pre-language skills here. Make a big action as you pat the furry dog, or scratch the bumpy surface, then PAUSE to see if your toddler will copy these actions!

I love the 'That's not my....' books for a great touch and feel book option , and I regularly recommend these during our therapy sessions in Perth to support toddlers' sensory and motor development.

2. Lift the Flap Toddler Books to Encourage Interaction

These books are great for adding an extra element of surprise to the book reading experience. Your toddler will love watching you lift the flap and seeing what’s underneath.. Try the following tips as you read these books:

• Hold the flap down and wait for your toddler to request to 'open' the flap.
• Model 'look' as you look under the flap
• PAUSE when you have lifted the flap to give your toddler a chance to label the item under the flap. If they don't, you can then label the picture for them.

Some of my favourite lift the flap books are: Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell and Where's Mrs Kangaroo? (this has durable felt flaps that don't rip!).

These kinds of toddler books are often used in our therapy services at Walky Talky in Perth to encourage early communication and interaction.

3. Photo-Based Toddler Books to Connect with Real Life

Your little one will love seeing books containing photos as they can see elements from their life captured in the book. These toddler books are a great way for babies and toddlers to learn more about the real world and to be exposed to topics that are relevant to their lives.

These books often contain photos of people and close up faces, which will really draw in your toddler's attention.

Watch to see what they are looking at and comment on this using simple language. 

Some of my favourite board books with photos are: Hands Can by Cheryl Hudson, Baby Faces Peekaboo! and Let's Find Momo by Andrew Knapp

In our Perth-based therapy services, we use these books to help children engage with familiar faces, objects, and daily routines—making therapy more meaningful and relatable.

4. Sound-Action Toddler Books for Early Speech Skills

Books with pictures that pair easily with simple sounds (like animal and transport sounds) are a go-to of mine for toddlers who are not yet copying words. 

Copying sounds is an important step towards copying words and often we need to step back to this because it is a lot easier to copy a sound than a word!

So if this sounds like your toddler, look for books where you can easily model some simple sounds on each page. Books with animals, transport or nature sounds are great ones to look out for. 

Some of my favourites are: Baa Quack Moo by Christie Hainsby, Noisy Farm by Rod Campbell, Sounds All Around Us by Rhyia Dank and Things That Go by Christiane Engel

We frequently use these sound-focused toddler books in our speech and language therapy sessions in Perth, especially for little ones who are just beginning to use their voice.

5. Action-Focused Toddler Books for Building Verb Vocabulary

Verbs are such important words to add to your baby and toddler's vocabulary. They need verbs to be able to join words together in little phrases, a speech milestone your toddler will be expected to meet by 2 years of age.

Book reading is a wonderful time to model verbs as the pictures can help teach the meaning of the verb by showing what characters are doing. 

Look for toddler books where the characters are doing different actions that you can comment on (e.g. 'running' 'jumping' 'eating' 'swimming'). 

Some of my favourites are: Run like a rabbit by Alison Lester, Hairy Maclary and Where's Spot? books. 

We often use these kinds of books in our therapy services at Walky Talky Perth to support expressive language and help toddlers build sentence skills.

Support Beyond Toddler Books: Walky Talky Therapy Services in Perth

Want more tips for supporting your baby and toddler's speech and language development?
You've got some ideas now for toddler books to search for next time you're at the library or book store. But if you want more help to know exactly how you can support your little one to meet their speech and language milestones, we can help you inside our Walky Talky Baby or Toddler Membership , available both in-person and online through our Perth-based therapy services.