Last night something pretty amazing happened. Our 3 year old read us a bedtime story. Well, read is subjective. She memorized one of the stories we read her and told it to us while she turned the pages. Still it was pretty darn impressive and fun to watch.
As parents we are always worried about the development of our children. We obsess over milestones and growth charts. We scour parenting websites and talk to other parents about their children all so we can compare to and rate where our children are in life.
When it comes to learning, we all know how important it can be to give your child a running head start, but some experts tell us to hold our horses a bit. We have all seen the infomercials with the 3 1/2 month old sitting on some lady’s lap reciting War & Peace, but that is not the norm.
According to Judith Hudson, developmental psychologist, over on BabyCenter.com, children usually don’t read until after the toddler stage:
Children usually don’t start reading before the age of 5 or 6, and for good reason. Researchers believe that until that age, most children have not yet formed certain neural connections that allow them to decode printed letters and then mentally combine them to make words. A few children are able to read earlier, but most of them just pick it up; they don’t learn through direct instruction.
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I expect Carmen to start reading sometime very, very soon. We have been reading to her ever since she was a newborn. She has known and could recite the alphabet shortly after she began to speak full sentences. She could recognize her name and has begun to try to write it out on paper by herself. All the talks of preschool tend to want us to push her a bit, but, sometimes, you just have to let nature take its course.
By the way, her no longer being classified as toddler just breaks my heart.
As for helping your child read, well, the best thing you could do is to read to them. By doing so you are leading by example. Children want to grow up and they want to do it as fast as possible. They will want to be able to read books just like big people do. Remember when you looked in the mirror and tried to perform Jedi mind tricks to get your mustache to grow all because your dad, uncles, older friends, etc. had one?
Start with simple books. Rhyming books like Dr. Seuss books are a great way to start. Little Critter books are another great option. There are tons of book mobile apps out there along with apps that are interactive teaching tools like Write My Name by Injini – NCsoft. As your child grows he or she will crave books that are more complex and that have a storyline behind them. Something like Where the Wild Things Are
Toddlers learn about the structure of stories from books. Through reading different books, toddlers learn that most stories contain the same parts: a setting, characters, a series of events that lead to a problem, and a solution to the problem. When your toddler understands the way most stories are built, it helps her to understand new stories that are read aloud to her. Years later, this will help her to understand stories she reads independently.
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So, when it comes to your child reading. Take it easy, take your time and let nature take its course. Cherish every moment and don’t try to make your kid grow up too fast. Time flies and there will be plenty of time for all of that.
Now here’s my little monster reading to us: