It's never too soon, says Wendy Cooling, to introduce your baby to the wonderful world of words

Researchers claim that babies in the womb learn to recognise their mother's voice. Certainly babies respond to the voices of their carers, and to the rhythms and rhymes of language, in the early months of their lives. Nursery rhymes, stories and lullabies have been told and sung to generations of babies and are still enjoyed today. Books, too, should become a regular part of children's lives from the very beginning - it really is never too soon to share a book with your baby and to lead her gently into the wonderful world of words. As very young children listen to stories and rhymes they will develop 'an ear for language'. This will be a huge help in predicting and understanding the rhythms of texts as they move into reading.

Books for babies are fabulous today; they're creative and extremely varied. For the under ones, look for tough board books with bold, colourful pictures and texts that are full of great sounding words - such as 'squelch' and 'splish splosh' in Helen Oxenbury's child-centred board book, Tickle, Tickle (Walker 0 7445 6784 X). Your baby may not fully understand the words but will love the sound of them, and the sound of your voice reading them.

Sharing books is fun for both adult and child, just as soon as the baby gets used to sitting on your knee, listening to your voice and looking at pictures as you point to them. They'll want to join in with rhyming words, repeated words - whenever the book offers an opportunity. Alex Ayliffe's Boo Barney (Little Orchard 1 84121 2091) invites the baby to play peepo, to swing and to wave. Animal Noises (Usborne 07460 4104 7) will have your baby attempting to 'moo' and 'woof' as the text is read. This is a very simple book but there are little extras in the pictures for the parent to point out and talk about; it is a book that you will find yourself reading again and again. Let children help to turn the pages as soon as they want to - this is the start of learning how a book works. Soon, as you point to words and pictures, they will learn to look from left to right and eventually all these little bits of learning will come together as your child becomes a reader.

Books and toys are very alike to young children; they're about fun and joining in. Do have a Buggy Buddy (Campbell Books) attached to the buggy every time you take your baby out. They're little board books, the perfect size for small hands - they'll keep your baby happy and occupied through those long waits in the supermarket queue.

By the end of their first year lucky babies will have enjoyed a rich variety of stories and rhymes and will be well on the way to becoming book-lovers. They may be addicted to the sharing time too and will want it to continue long after they are good readers themselves. This ongoing shared reading will help you to be involved in your child's learning throughout the school years.

Book Trust's Bookstart project gives books and information about reading to parents taking their baby for the seven to nine month health check. The first Bookstart babies are now at school and research showed them to be ahead of other children in all the reading and numeracy baseline tests. We've always known that reading with children is a huge pleasure and now we know it gives them a great start at school too. The project also invites babies to join the library - so important if your baby is to have access to the wonderful range of books available for today's children.

For more information about 'Bookstart' see the Book Trust website at www.booktrust.org.uk