Written by Mister Wilson-Cory The Caterpillar Children’s Book
There are many developmental milestones for young children and beginning reading is amongst the top of the list. Children’s books have many powerful effects on children. Their ability to coax a curious and energetic child to sit still and listen is major. Then for children’s books to eventually teach them letters, words, and to begin reading is truly incredible.
One of the earliest signs that books are having a positive effect is when children start to ask that the books be read again. This request happens quite frequently and nearly every parent can bear witness of it happening to them. When children ask that a book be read again, good parents just quickly oblige the child, that is if time is permitting. It is often viewed as just another request among the many requests of parenting. Less frequently do parents acknowledge the power that the books have exerted upon the child to elicit this voluntary action of desiring a re-read.
What’s apparent is that a change has occurred, subtle but significant. The change indicates an advancement in the learning to read process. The child has moved from a disinterested and passive listener to an active participant in the learning reading process. Now the child selects the books and selects what they want as entertainment. The child acts of their own volition with only the memory of the previously read story book as the impetus. Yes, I said it, the child’s verbal action is linked to the forces of the books. Just because the books can’t demand credit on their own doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve credit.
For books to produce such entertainment or educational joy that a child asks that it be read again is quite noteworthy. It had to have impressed upon the child something as pleasant as their first taste of caramel candy or ice cream. The child had to have had an immediate and reoccurring sense of pleasure. Moreover, the child must think that the story book will be at least equally as enjoyable on the second or subsequent reads to make such a request. Almost immediately, children will begin to take additional voluntary or independent action steps toward learning to read. The books will start being a regular part of “the toys of today pile” in the floor. If there are other siblings, the child will attempt to read to them or their parents. Their words will become clearer when attempts to read the stories are overheard and the pages descriptions will be closer to what is printed or drawn upon them. Finally, the choppy pronounced words that form the broken sentences will eventually smooth to become confident reading.
Of course, the parents and the children are the more significant players in the process, but children’s books deserve great praise for their contribution as well. You may remember the specific books and appreciate the stories responsible for your first independent reading experiences. The books that manifest in children a verbalized desire to be read again are doing priceless work. These special books and their characteristics may be discovered among the old and newly published. Many of them have been or will become the first books a child reads.
Written by Mister Wilson-Cory The Caterpillar Children’s Books
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