By Rachael O'ConnorShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberA father who woke to the sound of his son laughing on the baby monitor never expected what he was about to see.
Billy Bone, 41, lives in the United Kingdom with his partner Rebecca, 37 and their son Tobias, who has just turned three years old.
Bone says that while they are not "perfect parents," and do let their son use an iPad "here and there," one thing they are "proud of is that we have religiously read to him every single night since he moved into his own room at six months old."
"It has become part of his bedtime routine, and he likes to pick out a book," Bone said. "We think this has had a massive impact on his speech."
Now, in a clip to his TikTok account @the_bone_family on November 23, Bone has shown what a recent morning with his book-loving son was like, after they read a Christmas-themed story called Don't be Silly, Santa!
In the video, Tobias is awake and lying in his cot, but isn't quite ready to start the day. Instead, he's entertaining himself—by recalling the book his parents read to him the night before.
It shows Tobias giggling to himself, repeating phrases from the book, and laughing even harder, at one point even sighing as though the laughter is too much to handle.
He tries to repeat one of his favorite lines—"a big pile of reindeer pooh"—but has to start several times to get through it as he's giggling too much.
His dad wrote over the video: "This is why reading to your kids matters. He woke up laughing about the book we read last night!"
...Reading to babies introduces them to a vast amount of new words, allowing them to build a vocabulary and pre-literacy skills, while also giving them 100 percent of your attention, according to a medically reviewed report from Parents.
It also immerses them in the sounds and rhythms of speech, which is crucial for language development. Children who are read to from under a year old often have larger and more complex vocabularies than their peers by the age of three.
TikTok users loved the video, watching more than 1.8 million times, and giving the clip close to 300,000 likes, as one commenter wrote: "He's having his own little thoughts. So incredible for someone so tiny!"
Another called Tobias' speech "amazing," another agreeing: "He speaks so well, what age did he start talking?"
Others shared their own stories of reading to their children every night, or recommending books for kids Tobias' age—but another admitted: "Mine woke up laughing about me falling off my bike."
Bone told Newsweek that he and his partner "were laughing in bed listening to him! It went on for a lot longer than the video. Certainly a nicer way to wake up than our usual alarm clock!"
It's not just TikTok commenters who have pointed out Tobias' speech, either, as he said proudly: "He’s had excellent vocabulary since he was one, and we often have people coming up to us whilst out, or in restaurants, commenting on his speech.
"He’s a space fanatic and knows every planet in the solar system in both order and size order, as well as the dwarf planets."
Speaking about the book in question, he added: "Being a typical boy, the phrases he loved were 'a big pile of reindeer pooh,' and 'tummy ache,' from the elves cooking! We certainly hope he continues with his love for books."
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