First, I would like to say how very sorry I am to miss our time together at Kids’ Create. I’m hoping you and your families are well and safe. I thought I could take this opportunity to offer some suggestions on reading to your babies and young children.
There are, of course, many benefits of reading to babies and young children. Using your baby’s natural propensity to focus on familiar voices, you can create a quiet time for interaction and bonding while facilitating the development cognitive skills associated with listening, comprehension and memory.
Picture books with colorful bright images help to capture a child’s focus and attention. With babies, I like to start with books that have single image on the page and then point to and label that image. You can add simple descriptions, including actions, colors and sounds accompanying the name of the image.
Moving to pictures with multiple images, you can teach a child to locate specific images. Looking at a picture of barnyard animals, you can ask, “Where’s the cow?” This seems a simplistic idea, something we do naturally, but it offers the opportunity to develop many skills. First, it develops a basic back and forth question/answer interaction. Then it allows us to teach the child the skill of scanning. As in teaching any skill, it is best to break the skill into its components. Scanning is second nature to many of us, you look around to find what it is you’re looking for. We’re not even aware of what we are actually doing because it happens so fast for us (not so with a baby). What we’re actually doing is looking at individual objects, identifying them and determining whether that thing is indeed what we’re looking for. To break this down for your child you ask, “Where’s the cow?” then show them how to look for it. Point to the dog. “That’s not a cow. That’s a dog.” Point to the sheep, “That’s not a cow. That’s a sheep.” And you go on until you find the cow. Not only does this teach the art of scanning and a foundation of problem-solving skills, but it gives you the opportunity to label many things.
I don’t suggest limiting small children’s reading exposure to basic picture books. I remember when my grandson was one-year-old he wanted to hear Rosie and the Rustlers (written by Roy Gerrard) over and over. It had vivid illustrations but it was longer than I would expect to hold his attention. Its plot and vocabulary were well beyond his comprehension.
There were scenes of consternation and outraged indignation
When they heard McGhee describe what had occurred
Then they galloped home at speed, so the Ben should not succeed
In escaping to the mountains with the herd
What held my grandson was the rhythm. Poetry is a wonderful way to introduce rhythm and phrasing - components vital to complex speech. Poetry also develops phonemic awareness (the ability to hear and identify sounds). This awareness helps the child acquire language and will be the foundation of developing phonics (the connection between written and spoken language) and in turn facilitate learning to read. Music and singing also develop these skills, so remember to sing to and with your child as well.
When listening to someone speak in a language you don’t understand, you may find it difficult to distinguish when one word ends and the next begins. This is how your child hears you. So reading time is a wonderful time for you to practice slowing down and varying your speed and pitch to emphasize words in order to maintain attention and help your child identify and learn individual words.
Reading to your child builds the foundation for speech, reading and acquiring cognitive skills. It is also time for interacting and bonding. For it to work effectively, it is important to do it regularly and to do it regularly it is important to make it fun, both for your child and for you. Enjoy! I look forward to seeing you and your families at Kids Create in the future.
Kathy Sutton
Facilitator for Kid Create 0-3 year old group