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For Parents and Teachers
Reading Aloud to Children
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- Published on December 25, 2011
Poet Laureate of the United States, Robert Hass (1995), wrote: "Reading aloud to children must be one of the richest of human transactions. The child is having that first experience of the sustained power of its own imagination that opens up whole worlds, inside and outside, and having in it the voice - its own and not its own, the parent's and not the parent's - from which it first learned the rhythm and inflection and play of human language. We all remember this: the experience is a huge thing, deeply intimate and wonderfully impersonal. For the parent reading to the child it is a chance to renew his or her own adult experience of poem and story and to be companion to the child's experience, which seems so alert, even in sleepiness, so without walls, because, I guess, a child's imagination dissolves them so freely. In this way, it contains one of the great powers of parenting; it's like being alive twice."
TV Guidelines for Young Children
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- Published on December 03, 2011
"In children under 2, the concern is with learning and cognitive development. Learning occurs mostly through interaction with adults," says Dr. Kristen Copeland, lead author of a new study presented at the Pediatric Academies Societies meeting in May 2011 in Denver, CO.
The American Academy of Pediatrics currently recommends that children under 2 in child care watch no TV at all. The AAP also suggests that children over age 2 in childcare should watch TV no more than once a week, and for no more than 30 minutes per week. For more information, go to www.aap.org
Using Language with Children
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- Published on November 18, 2011
Explore children's literature together. Sit close enough together so all can see the pictures and words. Point to things on the page. Repeated often, a child will recognize that reading together opens a door to beauty and adventure. This is not a small thing. Indeed, it lays a foundation for a love of the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom.
Children need to hear you talk. Children learn words, and how to use words, by listening to you. Talk to children about everything. It's raining outside. What's for dinner? Where did we leave your shoes? Call objects by their real names. Children need to hear you talk.
