A couple of weeks ago I asked the teachers to access my Google Calendar and find a convenient time for me to come in and read to their students. Reading to the children is something that I have always enjoyed doing. I have a reading background as my Master’s degree is that of a Reading Specialist. This time with the students also allows me to connect with them enabling us to “get to know” each other. Because of this shared time, they are more comfortable approaching me when I am out on campus during playtime or when I am in the classrooms.
I have many picture books that I would list as my favorites. I tend to share them with the students when I read. However, I also ask our librarian, Ms. Fong, if she has any new books that I could read to the children to introduce the books to them first hand. I typically enter the classes with a basket of reading. Even the older students love to hear the picture books being read orally.
Children’s book author Terry Pierce, listed and expanded on five reasons she believes picture books benefit young children. The first reason she spoke of was language development. Pierce notes that most picture books contain only about 500 words; many books have fewer. Because there are so few words, the author has to choose the language carefully which is why a hallmark of picture books is that they are crafted with such care. Editor Anne Hoppe writes that with picture books “the writer distills, the illustrator expands”.
Picture books also facilitate brain development in young children. Between the ages of 2 and 7 the brain is making extra neurological connections, trying to establish “patterns, cause-and-effect and sequences”. For those of us that have read picture books, we know that many of them contain familiar patterns (Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, by Bill Martin) and rhyming words (The Gruffalo and Stick Man, by Julia Donaldson) which children love. These books help to create new connections is the brain.
Pierce also believes that the physical participation of a child turning a page in a book is important in the child developing a love of reading. Turning the page in the book “sets up an interactive experience between the child and the story”. Many authors build suspense when writing by beginning a sentence on one page and ending it on the next after a page turn. This allows for more cause-and-effect pathways to develop in the brain.
Children want to be part of the reading experience. When children participate in the reading of a book, their attention span can be enhanced. Being engrossed in a book, especially one that has a catchy refrain (Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, by Judith Viorst), allows for students to wait for their opportunity to join in the storytelling experience by “reading” the refrain along with the teacher.
Finally, picture books are multi-sensory. Brains at this age are developing rapidly. The experiences that we as educators provide (this includes parents as you are your child’s first teacher) allow for development to happen more rapidly by stimulating their children’s senses. When reading a picture book, children are hearing words, seeing shapes (letters/words) on a page, touching or feeling the book (tactile /touch-and-feel books), and smelling the pages as well (scratch-and-sniff books).
There is a disturbing trend in the United States that began just under a decade ago; the sales of picture books are down. The New York Times noted that many parents are skipping picture books and going straight to chapter books.
The reason?
Some parents believe that by going straight to chapter books they will help to “advance their (children’s) reading skills”. Bluntly, Pierce writes that, “It isn’t true. Or smart”. She provides the analogy of a parent not allowing his/her child to crawl and go straight to walking as eventually this would make the child a better runner.
I am sure we would all agree that this would not be in our children’s best interest.
Dr. Michael Berry
Head of Primary
