Reading is Fundamental is a term that we use often in our schools, churches and families across America. Infants and toddlers in some cultures are exposed to written as well as oral language. In American families, adults and infants, toddlers and elementary school age children of all cultural groups spend time together reading stories or browsing other written materials. When parents read with toddlers and elementary children, they promote literacy skills, such as how to handle books, turn pages and master the content in the book.
Various experiences are warm and enjoyable and how, early in life, that reading is interesting and worthwhile. In shared reading activities, children learn that stories are read with a certain pacing and intonation. As young children, many school age students respond to parent’s book reading in unique and complex ways. Some children have been found to imitate events in a story after they have heard it. They also are more accurate in their reenactments the more times they have heard and read a story. This suggests that parents and caregivers should begin identifying children’s favorite picture books and rereading them, even before 2 years of age.
The reason so many children have not gotten better at reading in 20 years is complex. The future of reading in America is the result of a myriad of social norms and advancements in technology. Children’s brains now react not only to whether words sounded differently, but also to whether they are familiar or unfamiliar words. At the young age of 5 years old, the speech-processing region of brain appears to be very sensitive to detecting and analyzing language based on both speech sounds and meaning.
Some child and family service programs, such as Head Start, Even Start and the Family Resource Center now include literacy interventions for infants, toddler and young children. A few studies have been conducted to examine the effects of reading strategies that address the impact of why we haven’t gotten better at reading in the U.S. in the past 20 years, aimed at the cultural and contextual differences among today’s children. The bottom line is that it is NEVER TO EARLY TO READ TO CHILDREN.
Some children also have language delays. Additionally, some language delays have clearly specified causes. Some are: 1) Hearing impairment; 2) Down Syndrome; 3) Autism and 4) General Language Delays. The term delay causes some confusion, however, it implies that
some children will simply catch up with their peers in language and reading competence over tie. This is not always the case. Children with general language delays as toddlers or in preschool years are more likely to have language, reading, and academic problems and will be identified as having learning disabilities later in life. Unfortunately, some children have been identified as having reading delays merely because they are from families of different cultures or because they speak different dialects or languages. Educators, child and family professionals and policy makers should take great care not to assume that language differences are deficits.
The future of reading is clear, and the implication is even clearer. Policymakers have pushed for more testing of reading and mathematics in narrowing the gap between the rich and the poor children in our schools in America. However, these failed policies, laws and even strategies have left a generation of children less equipped to read and explore languages over the past few years. The answer to this ongoing dilemma is not as complicated as it appears. The need for teachers and educators to motivate, nurture and challenge our children in the developmental years worked in the 1960’s – 1990’s. Children and parents seemed to care about mutual responsibilities in the family and time was not marred with meetings, extended work hours and far less family time. Today, children and parents are stressed and stretched to the limit filling the day with activities that keep children busy yet, not engaged in the fundamental learning of the 3 R’s: 1) Reading, 2) Writing and 3) Arithmetic. Until our focus returns to READING IS FUNDAMENTAL – we will be continuing to have generations of children becoming adults who are unequipped with the necessary skills to advance themselves and their future families. Ultimately, we will be having this same conversation for years to come contemplating the question: Why Haven’t We Gotten Better at Reading over the past 20 years. It will be a shame if in 2050, we are reading this article and dealing with the same issue about reading 20 or 30 years from today.
Suzanne Mynette Mayo, Ph.D
Lecturer, Family and Consumer Sciences Department,
Grambling State University, Grambling, LA
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