Reading: The best way to teach your baby to speak.

rochi

For every parent of every baby, the onset of verbal language skills in our children is an exceptionally exciting time. Exciting... and yet so many parents today are either unaware of or skipping one of the most effective language construction methods available - reading EFFECTIVELY to your baby.
Respected Baby Development authors (such as Robin Barker, author of 'Baby Love') all agree that human beings learn more in the first year of their life than they ever manage again. With this in mind, consider your babies mind as a blank canvas that is automatically filling in the picture every day as they watch, listen, feel and experiment with ways to reach out to you. 'I know this!' I hear you cry, but how carefully have considered the WAY you read and the effort you put in for the benefit of your babies language development? Sadly, many people read quickly and very ineffectively to their babies as it is either an inconvenience or too much trouble to do well.



As a Primary School (or Grade School if you will) teacher, I consider all aspects of skilled reading in my observations of my students every day. Just the very simple and basic elements of good reading include the following:
- Language decoding (being able to READ the words on the page)
-Speed (how fast we decode)
-Volume (appropriate to the content or circumstances of our reading)
-Tone (the feeling and emotion added to reading)
This is not even touching on the strategies for understanding and absorbing content!
These are fine skills to focus on with school aged children but what has this to do with babies? When you read to your baby boy or girl you are not just imparting a story or associating words with pictures. From the very first item you read with your baby you are setting up their perception of how it feels to be involved in written language AND you are providing them with a very intense lesson in HOW TO SPEAK. A lot of parents overemphasise much of the language they read to their baby, many feeling self conscious and wondering how others might react if they were suddenly discovered talking this way by another adult. These concerns can be more appropriately focused if the reader considers WHAT it is they want to express from their reading to their baby. The above attributes of reading are very obviously beyond the skill level of a 0 - 2 year old. They are not, however, beyond the understanding of any educated, well read adult.
What, then, should we be considering when we read to our babies? Honestly... it really

durling0

I agree with your view.the first year of their life is a very critical year, I hope that every parent is able to pay attention to it.

rochi

Thanks durling0, appreciate your comments.

酋长

  I agree with Rochi's point completely. My son is four month old now,named Jason. I read for him everyday. He can't understand what I read,but he can feel the books,I think.
   I read the poem, let Jason feel the rhythm in it. And I read the stories about great men,I hope he will be a good man. I hope he love to read the book and study by yourself. Ability of learning is very important for Jason, I think.
   I am so pleasure to see the Rochi's article, thank you very much.

[ 本帖最后由 酋长 于 2010-2-2 14:21 编辑 ]