GT: It's great to read to your child from the earliest months - cuddle close and sing nursery rhymes, read a story with lots of sound effects, or play peek-a-boo along with a book. This shows your baby how important books are to you, that books come with a loving adult and that books are fun and exciting. Ladybird's Baby Touch Playbook is lovely for this age group. At this early stage, appealing pictures and textures are the most important aspect of books, and books will be as much a part of loving play as teddy bears. Later on, your child will understand that we treat books in different ways from toys.

GT: All carefully planned toddler books shared with you will develop the skills children need in order to learn to read. Children first need to understand how a book works - how we hold them, how we turn the pages, that we look at pictures from left to right. They then will understand that the pages say the same thing each time, and that, if it's a story or a rhyme, it can be remembered and said or sung along with you.

At this stage, we can point to the words in the books, and help children to recognise that words are different from pictures. Explain that we call those black squiggles words and that they tell us what to say, and that very soon, when they can read, the words will tell them what to say, too. We can also talk together about what is going on in the pictures: it's important to give toddlers time to tell the story for themselves rather than explain too much to them.

Children will begin to want to act like real readers, and will hold the book and read the story to us. Enjoy this stage as it's very important, and it's best not to insist that your child is accurate to the story.

Books with large, vibrant pictures that children are drawn to and can identify, plus a short, simple story are ideal to read to your child. Where's Spot? by Eric Hill is a great starting point. The most important thing in the world is that children should want to learn to read. The actual skill of reading words will be taught at school, in the phonics sessions - but for reading to take off after these sessions and be a joy for a lifetime, it's vital that the enjoyment is there.

EP: Let them see you reading and enjoying books - children love to copy what Mum and Dad do. Make sure books are available in the home. Choose a time when your child isn't tired, hungry, or eager to watch their favourite TV programme. Sit for a short time every day with a book on a subject that interests your child, such as cars, animals or football. Give plenty of encouragement and let your child know how pleased you are when he or she looks at a book, but keep it light-hearted and please don't get anxious: children really do develop at their own rates. Establish a cosy, fun bedtime story routine and ask your child to choose the book from a small selection.

EP: Absolutely. Learning to read should be an exciting, happy experience. Sharing books with toddlers should be about spending time together, sometimes singing, shouting and bouncing along, enjoying the rhythm of stories and songs - hopefully with a lot of laughter and fun. Children need to build a set of skills before they are ready to read (such as retelling, sequencing, predicting and matching). It's best not to hurry children to read words before they have grasped these foundation pre-reading skills. Remember that anxious children can't learn, and that early enjoyment of books and stories lasts for life.

GT: It's great to read the same book if your child requests it, but not necessarily so that they recognise words. One of the predictors of successful reading is that children have a favourite book around the age of three! And children will often request this book over and over again. Like us, children enjoy familiarity and being able to predict what's coming. It's confidence building and a nice feeling to have a book that's special to them. You could always read the favourite book and leave out an important word to see if your child can supply it from memory - this can turn into a lovely game.

You can gently suggest variety by saying to your child, we'll read your favourite book first, and then try a bit of this new book...