I recently had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Jane Kessler, a child psychologist and professor emeritus at Case Western Reserve University. Since retiring, Dr. Kessler has owned and operated Appletree Bookstore in Cleveland Heights, Ohio and along the way has become an expert in children’s books. Over the next few weeks we would like to share with you Dr. Kessler’s recommendations to enhance your child’s reading experience from infancy through eight-years-of-age.
Reading with your child is an invaluable experience for both of you! Dr. Kessler, stressed the importance of reading out loud to children from infancy through at least 8 years of age. As children get older and begin to read more on their own, it is still okay to continue setting a special time to read with your child. For infants and toddlers, parents can help bring alive the pictures on the page by describing the pictures and elaborating on the story. As children grow older, they learn to use context clues like pictures to help them learn to read and make meaning from the story. Parents can also help make reading “real” by connecting the experiences in the book to their child’s life. This shared activity is a great way to help children develop their comprehension skills. Additionally, setting a special time to read each day signals to children that their parents find reading an important activity and skill to develop.
November 18th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
I’m looking forward to reading this series of posts. My toddler loves reading, it’s one of his special times with us where he has or undivided attention, and now he’s at the point where he wants to “read” books to me instead of me reading to him. If I try to read the words on the page he tells me, “no mommy, I’m reading to you!”
November 20th, 2008 at 9:57 am
That’s awesome! What books does he like to read to you? If you don’t leave it in a comment here, please send us a link to the post on your blog.
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Right now he’s really into cars and trucks and trains, so pretty much anything to do with that. He’ll open the books and tell us his own story of what’s going on with the characters on the pages. Especially with anything Thomas the Train or Disney Cars, plus he loves his Richard Scarry “Cars and Trucks and Things That Go” book. All very typical boy stuff.