This is part of discovering that they need to use sounds to communicate. Soon a baby makes the sounds that she hears and is able to understand more than 50 words. Before her first birthday, she will be able to point to pictures in a book and even show a preference for certain pages, looking at them intently. Toddlers can understand a basic story plot and identify characters when asked to point to them in a picture. At this stage, the child is dependent on the illustrations, which is why it's critical that the books contain pictures that closely correspond to the story.
Toddlers can mimic actions they see in a book, such as throwing a ball or hopping.
A preschool child acquires vocabulary rapidly, and books contribute to this explosion of new words and meanings. Most words are learned by hearing them over and over in a story. By rereading the same books to your child, you are facilitating her desire to learn to read on her own. Young children initially think that the adult is telling the story from the pictures. When they hear a book repeatedly, they figure out that the story stays the same each time.