However, some parents worry that they aren't doing enough. There are books and videos that promise to Teach Your Baby to Read. Is that kind of targeted early instruction necessary? I think not. Babies can learn to recognize sight words, to be sure, but that kind of reading limits the reader to only the words they have been taught. Waiting until the child's brain is actually ready to use the "building blocks" of words-- the letters and combinations of letters-- is much more effective.
But how, then, is a parent to make sure that a child is ready for the instruction when he goes to school? Reading to babies, toddlers, and preschoolers definitely prepares them to enjoy and appreciate reading. Babies learn that books contain words, that the words don't change, and the words may tell a story or share information. The books may even introduce letters and letter sounds, but the mystery of how those letters work is still something that most children will need to be taught later. So, beyond simply reading, what are some other things you can do with your baby or young child that will increase his chances of being a strong reader and writer in the future?
First, help your baby to communicate. Through body language and sounds, we all send and receive information. Every interaction you have with your child can increase her communication skills! Use eye contact, smile, laugh; mimic her facial expressions. Encourage her to mimic yours. Many parents have found that teaching "baby signs" to their little ones not only reduces the frustration of terrible twos (when toddlers know what they want but lack the words to express themselves), but also builds brain connections that encourage verbal communication later on. In fact, everything you do to facilitate communication with your child will build brain connections that will later be used in reading and writing.
Talking to your baby will build his vocabulary. A 2013 Stanford study found that babies who enjoyed the most verbal interaction with their parents had a significant advantage over less-talked-to peers. (1) By age three the talked-to babies had heard an estimated thirty million more words, and understandably had a much larger vocabulary than the children of the less chatty parents. Of course the larger a child's vocabulary, the more words he can read and comprehend. (And unlike words from the tv or computer audio, actual interaction with people promotes retention of the vocabulary-- simply put, the words mean more when they come from someone who loves you.)
As important as knowing what the words mean is learning to distinguish the individual sounds within the words. I have mentioned in previous posts that word play is important to building the auditory processing skills that allow a child to read well. Listening to (and later repeating) rhyming words in nursery rhymes, poems and songs, and alliteration in tongue-twisters, all help a child's brain sort sounds into meaningful units. He will learn to hear the differences between the sounds of cat vs bat, bat vs bit, and understand that the difference in a single sound can change one word to another word. This skill is critical to reading.
Besides sound discrimination, a little brain needs to develop visual discrimination in order to be able to tell the letters apart. Shape-sorting, identifying pictures, and simply naming things he sees are all helpful activities. Babies can "point to the dog" or "point to the cat." And babies are hard-wired to learn names for things. It's not unusual for a toddler under the age of two to be able to identify the letters of the alphabet; this skill is no more difficult than identifying a simple drawing of a dog or a tiger. And while some educators prefer that children learn to associate a letter with its sound(s) before learning its name, I disagree. Learning to distinguish a Q from an O, for example, is a lot easier if you can call each by its name rather than trying to explain "this round shape with a tail stands for the sound /k/ and this other one without a tail can sound like /oh/, /ah/, /uh/", etc. So go ahead and read Dr Seuss' ABC, and sing the ABC song, to let your little guy learn his letters. Just keep it fun!
Playing with three-dimensional letters can also help the child cement their forms in his mind. Letters can be formed out of play dough, or even cookie dough. A simple alphabet puzzle allows the child to take the letters out and manipulate them, while still learning that they must be oriented in a certain way on the page (or puzzle board.) This is an important skill as well; some experts in dyslexia say that the dyslexic brain's mental maneuvering of the letters can cause reading difficulty. The letters on a page may seem to move around, orienting themselves in any direction. According to the author of The Gift of Dyslexia, playing with 3-D versions of letters helps solidify the child's perception, so that the printed letters will stay still on the page. (2) Kinesthetic learners are also helped by holding and moving the 3-D letters around. They remember things they feel and move more than what they see, so giving their brain experience with "real" letters will help them transfer the knowledge to 2-D images of the letters-- aka "print"-- later on.
Fine motor skills and organization skills will also help build a foundation for good writing. That's why kindergarten used to include such activities as painting, sorting or stringing beads, and lacing cards, as well as coloring and drawing. Even babies can begin to work their fine motor skills by picking up Cheerios or other small finger foods and putting them in their mouths. Finger painting, swirling pudding around on a high chair tray-- these activities build the brain-muscle connections that will later make forming letters with a pencil much easier. But of course writing is more than just a physical task; it also requires organizing thoughts into words and sentences. The ground work for that can begin with babies, too. Beyond the obvious "exercise" of having actual conversations at whatever level the little one is capable of, organization can also be fostered through activities as simple as putting toys in a toy box and laundry in a hamper. Playing with a shape-sorting ball or ring stacker can further develop these skills. (Although, to be honest, I've never seen a child actually use either of those toys for its intended purpose.) In years to come, the child will be using those fine motor skills to form letters and words (or type them), and will be organizing his ideas into words.
Preparing your child for school success does not take extraordinary measures. Especially in the early years, it's all about interacting with your child in positive ways: talking, playing, and reading with your little one will set the groundwork for future literacy instruction. These are natural things that most parents do with their children anyway. The little brain is absorbing language, sorting sounds and organizing things she sees. And that's why, with effective instruction at the right time, most school-aged children can learn to read and write without a whole lot of trouble. So relax! Enjoy your baby and watch her grow.
1) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3710871/
2) http://davis-method.narod.ru/Gift_of_Dyslexia.pdf
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