Recent interest in early learning has spurred investigations on how infants and their parents react in read-aloud situations, though any reading parent can tell you a child's interest/response relationship with books is one of peaks and valleys. But if you are a new parent, the valleys can be discouraging. So here is a forecast so you'll not be discouraged or think your child is hopeless.
At four months of age, since he has limited mobility, a child has little or no choice but to listen and observe, thus making a passive but noncombative audience for the parent who is probably thinking, "This is easy!"
Your arms should encircle the child in such a way as to suggest support and bonding, but not imprisonment. By six months, however, the child is more interested in grabbing the book to suck on it than listening (which he's also doing). Bypass the problem by giving him a teething toy or other distraction. At eight months, he may prefer turning pages to steady listening. Allow him ample opportunity to explore this activity but don't give up the book entirely. At twelve months, the child's involvement grows to turning pages for you, pointing to objects you name on the page, even making noises for animals on cue. By fifteen months and the onset of walking, his restlessness blossoms fully, and your reading times must be chosen so as not to frustrate his immediate interests.
In nearly all the above studies,4 attention spans during infant reading time averaged only three minutes in length, though several daily readings often brought the total as high as thirty minutes a day. There are some one-year-olds who will listen to stories for that long in one sitting but be assured they are more the exception than the rule.
As babies mature, good parent readers profit from earlier experiences. They don't force the reading times, they direct attention by pointing to something on the page, and they learn to vary their voices between whispers and excited tones. And they learn that attention spans are not built overnight — they are built minute by minute, page by page, day by day.
Once the child begins to respond to the sight of books and your voice, begin a book dialogue, talking the book instead of just reading it, with questions like, "Isn't this a wonderful book, Jennifer?" Or "Would you like a puppy like that some day?" Even though the baby cannot initially respond, your pausing in the appropriate places for answers creates a kind of oral road map the child will soon follow on his own when she starts to talk.5
Talking the book requires your reading the pages to yourself ahead of time, or observing the pictures, then having what amounts to a conversation with the child.
Children less than eighteen months old often find it difficult to understand complicated illustrations that adults recognize easily. Book illustrations consisting of many little figures running here and there may be charming to adults but they are incomprehensible to young children. An adult can recognize instantly a three-dimensional rabbit when it is reduced to one dimension on a page, but a fourteen-month-old is just beginning this complicated process.
To help the child in this task, the picture books you choose now should be uncomplicated — a single image to a page and preferably in color. Plot, if there is any, is secondary to the image.
What comes after Mother Goose?
During the toddler stage, an important parental role is to serve as a welcoming committee — welcoming the child to your world. Think of yourself as the host of a huge party and your child is the guest of honor. Naturally, you want to introduce him to all the invited guests to make him feel at home. This stage is called "labeling the environment," and as the child grows older a huge number of "things" become an object of fascination: holes, cars, snow, birds, bugs, stars, trucks, dogs, rain, planes, cats, storms, babies, Mommies and Daddies.
Picture books are perfect teaching vehicles at this stage. Point to the various items illustrated in the book, call them by name, ask the child to say the name with you, and praise any responses. Two books stand out for this purpose: The Everything Book by Denise Fleming (Holt) and My First Word Book by Angela Wilkes (DK). The latter is a collection of photographs of 1000 common items and aimed at 18-36 months, while The Everything Book focuses on infants to 18 months and contains a smaller number of images, including animals, shapes, colors, rhymes, finger games, food, faces, letters, traffic, and toys.
Why do they want the same book read over and over?
Just as you didn't learn the names of everyone in your neighborhood or parish overnight, children also need repeated readings in order to learn. This means, reading a different book every day may keep the adult from being bored but it also prevents the child from the reinforcement needed for learning. Prior to age two, repeated readings of a smaller number of books in the family is better than a huge collection read infrequently.
Like their parents, children are most comfortable with the familiar, and when they are relaxed, they're better able to absorb. Those of us who have seen a movie more than once fully realize how many subtleties escaped us the first time. Even more so with children and books.
The repeated readings also help build children's self-esteem. First, the reader makes the child feel good by granting his wish for a repeat performance. Second, with each repetition the child is better able to predict what will happen next. Very little in a child's life is completely predictable. They never know what you will give them to wear, to eat, or where you will take them on a given day. And then along comes this book that your repeated readings have made entirely predictable, something at which the young child is suddenly an expert. He can tell you exactly what will happen next, word for word, page for page. |
