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| "Children are made readers on the laps of their parents." - Emilie Buchwald |
It does not matter how far we evolve, reading to children still happens on parents' laps. Or big brother or big sisters' laps. Shoot it can even happen in aunts, uncles, and grandparents' laps. But sitting down watching the pages turn and seeing the pictures and hearing the words come out of the reader's mouth right next to the child's ear all happens sitting in someone's lap.
And below are just a few cute pictures I found on Google of parents reading to their children.
I put this article on Jessica's blog but I think you would enjoy it too!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/25/books/a-splendid-little-book-club-has-ended-its-run.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&ref=books
I think this is a good point; however, I think that there are so many children who never experienced the comfort and knowledge that comes with sitting on a loved one's lap. I think this is where technology could step in and at least present some of the mimicking functions with text-to-speech and interactivity in the absence of good, adult role-models with laps to offer.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you! I will always cherish the memories I have of sitting on my parent’s laps (or beside them when I was a little too big to be comfortably held) while they read stories to me, and I think this is crucial not only for helping kids learn to read, but also for providing them with an interest in the act of reading itself. Yesterday I was looking for some articles to incorporate into a blog post, and I was thinking about posting something along the lines of what you have written; although my post turned out to be a bit different than I had originally thought, and I did not incorporate this article, I thought I would reference it here: “Reading Wordless Storybooks to Toddlers May Expose Them to Richer Language,” published by Science Daily, makes a number of interesting points. The major one, as hinted to in the title, is that children benefit more (by gaining a larger vocabulary and more engagement with the act of reading) by not only having parents read to them, but by having parents “read” books that do not have any words; these books they are referring to contain colorful pictures, but in order to be “read,” require that the parent “come up” with a story to go along with the pictures. Without the simple words and phrases provided by “typical” toddlers’ books, parents are forced, and generally choose, to use more sophisticated language and make the story more “personal” by connecting it to their child and their own life experience. I found this very interesting, but it also made me think of how much effort this requires on the part of the parent. In today’s day and age it is certainly easier to hand a child an ipad with a “learn-to-read” app than it is to actively “read” them a wordless story, but in my opinion (and in yours, as far as I can tell from your post!) it is this act of parental engagement that is so crucial for developing future generations of readers.
ReplyDeleteoops forgot the link. here it is if you're interested!
Deletehttp://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130429164821.htm
Chelsea-- I think this is a subject that resonates with a lot of people and one that definitely resonates with me. The reason I love reading is because the value of it was instilled in me by my parents and grandparents. I'm curious about how you see the future of reading in terms of this. Because so many people in our generation don't see the same value in reading as many of us do, do you think they will commit the time to their children and grandchildren to teach them how to read? And will it have the same value it does to English/Writing/Journalism majors like those in our class? Just some food for thought!
ReplyDeleteJackie, it's funny that you mention parents "personalizing" stories for children because that's actually exactly what my dad would do. He didn't like sticking to the traditional fairy tales in my HUGE Mother Goose book, so he would make up stories on the spot. Most of them revolved around baseball, but yeah, he would just tell me to close my eyes and picture what he was telling me. Some of those stories are actually the ones I remember most, and no skies were falling. I would agree with them that when my dad would make up his stories, I learned much more different words than if I had listening to a "classic" story. The only thing was that I learned words like "full count," "strike(out)," and "home run." So I guess they were just more specialized words.
ReplyDeleteDevon, I think the value of reading to reading- and writing-intensive majors will continue the way that it is now. I cannot imagine that that value would decrease just because of the change in people's opinions. There are some people in those majors, especially in journalism, that just don't care to read, at least not anything more than they have to for the news. But I think the value of reading will remain because it will always be there. The way people read might change from printed forms to digital, but I do not think the reading will actually decrease. Granted, that is as long as Google doesn't make something that transmits information straight into our brain without us having to read anything. And for humanity's sake in general, let's hope that never happens!
ReplyDeleteI watch both mediums of reading with children happen in a single church service every Sunday. There is a young boy (age 5) that likes to sit with my sister and I. She has an iPad that she likes to read the Bible from so she can take notes and I prefer using the printed edition. No matter who he decides to lean on that day, he likes when we use our fingers to follow the words that are being read. Now that he is learning to read, he is starting to use his finger as well. Even when we are singing with the song book, if I don't have my finger following the flow of the words, he will take my hand and put it there and then point his finger in preparation. Either way, he's learning to read. It doesn't matter if it's iPad or print. He's reading, and it makes me proud!
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