You hear a lot of advice as a new parent. To keep your sanity, you willfully forget most of it. It’s the recommendations you hear over and over again that tend to make it through the clutter.

And if there’s one that’s been pounded into my head in my first nine months of parenthood, it’s this: READ TO YOUR KID!

Just last month, the American Academy of Pediatrics announced that doctors will now tell parents to read aloud to their children from birth. That’s because critical brain development occurs in the first three years of life; the more words a child hears during that time the better prepared they are for school and to communicate as adolescents, studies have found.

When a baby is a few months old, though, it might seem like a waste of time to read to her. She might not even be looking at the book. But her brain is absorbing everything around her.

Case in point: My baby’s first (intentional) word was “Tia.”

Why was that? Well, my daughter probably hears her mother and me say Tia, the name of our 4-year-old yorkie-bichon mix, more than just about any other word. “Come here, Tia.” “Good girl, Tia.” “Drop it, Tia.” “Bad Tia!”

Even before Lily spoke Tia’s name, she realized who she was. Whenever we would call the dog, Lily would look around the room for her until she found her. It was adorable.

Lily is also, for whatever reason, infatuated with Tia. I’ve never heard Lily laugh as hard as she does when Tia runs around in circles and growls. And while Tia was wary of the baby at first, probably feeling like she’d been replaced, she now reciprocates her love with licks to the face.

The other morning, the baby, dog and I got up and went down to the living room. Tia sat on one couch, I plopped on the other and Lily started crawling around on the floor. She then stood herself up by holding onto the couch where the dog was sitting.

“Is that Tia?” I said.

“T-ya,” Lily responded, trying to figure out how to stretch one syllable into two.

And don’t just read to your baby. Talk to her. Another piece of advice that made it through the noise early in my daughter’s life was that you should have conversations with your infant, using baby talk. So when Lily would say, “Goo goo,” I would say, “Ga ga.” Experts says this teaches newborns the rhythms of a real conversation.

Babies are curious creatures. They yearn to learn. Lily’s latest thing is pointing at everything in sight and having us tell her what each item is. (This is also adorable.)

When it comes to reading, my daughter’s favorite book is one older than her grandparents. For all the new kids books being released nowadays, it’s hard to beat the classics: “Goodnight Moon,” “The Very Hungry Caterpillar,” “Mother Goose.” “Pat the Bunny,” released in 1940, is no different.

The interactive children’s tome written by the late Dorothy Kundhardt features eight different activities. My kiddo particularly loves patting the furry bunny, smelling the flowers and looking at herself in the little mirror. Not only is she hearing words but associating them with the accompanying activities.

I’ve tried other interactive books, but none have captivated her attention quite like “Pat the Bunny.” So we’ve since bought “Pat the Puppy,” “Pat the Cat” and “Pat the Zoo.” You’ve got to stick with what works.

And be patient. While it might not seem like your infant is getting anything out of your reading to her at first, stick with it. Their brains are like sponges at that age, ready and willing to soak in whatever they hear. Make that time count.

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