What Do You Know About Reading To Your Child?
I received my weekly email from Baby Center on tips and tricks in dealing with my toddler. Today’s email focused on how to ensure your toddler is happy, how to keep your toddler engaged and stimulated. The email had a link to a quiz on how much do know about reading to your child.
I thought, I am educated person, both my husband and I read a lot to C2 and we are always encouraging any form of reading. C2 loves books and at any given time of the day, he will walk over to the books and just sit and “read”. So, I figure I knew a great deal about reading to my child.
I take the quiz pretty confidentially that I am going to get an 8 or 9 out of 10. I am an over achiever and always did well in school. I got 6 out of 10; 60% correct what? If this was a school quiz I would have received a D-.
After taking the quiz, Baby Center provides the answers with an explanation.
So, what did I learn?
1. Although I knew you should read to your child daily, I did not know you should read preferably at a regular time of day. Of course every night before C2 goes to sleep he gets 4 or 5 bed time stories, but like I stated above he has access to books all day and regularly visits them.
2. “Children younger than 18 months often find it difficult to understand complicated illustrations that adults recognize easily,” says Jim Trelease in the Read Aloud Handbook. Young toddlers aren’t quite able to grasp the idea that a small flat picture of an apple represents the shiny red three-dimensional fruit they saw on the kitchen counter; uncomplicated illustrations make it easier for them to make sense of what they’re seeing.
3. Toddlers have so much they’re trying to learn that they may need to hear a story many times before they really understand it and are familiar with it. And familiarity leads to self-confidence.
4. An early emphasis on teaching letters, sounds, and syllables can sap a child’s enjoyment of story time.
Although, I only got 60 percent correct, the quiz provided valuable information that I obviously was not aware of. If you are interested in learning about how much you know about reading to your child, challenge yourself by taking the quiz.
