With our busy lives and so much entertainment from television, videos and computers it's easy to put off a child's plea for us to read to them. Experts say that children who have been read to are more successful academically, and it's an excellent chance for career or parent to share some quality time. Even babies can enjoy the sense of companionship, attention, security and physical closeness that reading together involves. Reading to babies also accelerates their ability to learn words.
"Being read to stimulates the children's imagination, language and emotional skills and helps them to develop an enquiring mind, as they question what they"re hearing or seeing on the page" (Britain's best weekly magazine 2002:35). They also have to accept reading as a joy and books should be a source of great enjoyment and pleasure. "Children can quickly learn "reading behavior"-how books work, turning pages, following pictures and print, flow of text from left to right and (not always but usually) top to bottom, by sitting on an adults lap and following a finger along the print or pointing to pictures" (Bruce et al 2000:163).
"Children need to be given the chance to handle books, look at and read as many different types and style of books as possible so that they can begin to decide for themselves what they prefer" (Child development notes pg366). There are different types of books and some books are more appropriate for different ages and stages of development than others. Still a good range and variety should be available for children to use.
