Chapter 4 - Preschool Prelude To Success In Reading

Pervasive Attitudes | Learning | Speech | Prereading | Word Recognition | Experiment | Summary | Q + A

Preschool experiences pave the way for successful reading in school. From early infancy the child is building attitudes toward himself and his world. First of all, he is learning to look. Out of a vague blur of light and darkness, certain objects take on meaning—perhaps the first of these is his mother's face. Practice in seeing objects is prerequisite to later perception of printed words. The baby is also learning to listen, to babble in his own way, and to imitate the speech he hears. Thus he builds up the oral vocabulary that is essential to beginning reading. As he approaches school age, the preschool child enjoys many prereading experiences.

Pervasive Attitudes

Patterns of personality begin to emerge soon after birth. These patterns and attitudes may affect the child's reading later on. Many of the older boys and girls who come to reading climes seem unable to put forth the effort that learning to read requires. They are pleasant but passive. They go through the motions and do the reading exercises, but make no progress. They never take the initiative.

It is not too farfetched to suggest that a passive attitude toward reading may stem from the experiences of infancy; it may have been reinforced by subsequent preschool experiences. For example, if a baby is repeatedly left alone to cry without relief, he may acquire a general feeling that it is futile to put forth effort. He does not gain a sense of confidence in the world into which he has been thrust.

The child who has been successful much of the time in meeting daily experiences and overcoming obstacles is likely to approach each new developmental task with self-confidence. On the other hand, the child who has been pushed and prodded beyond his real capacity, who has been urged to be "a little man" when it is hard enough for him to be a four-year-old, may develop a resistance to learning of any kind.

Thus parents' attitudes and relations with the child may help or hinder his future reading development. Among the parental attitudes that seem to have the most unfavorable influence are hostility toward the child and persistent attempts to coerce him into learning things that he is not ready to learn. The child of whom an impossible perfection is expected is likely to become anxious; he may try to withdraw from a hostile world, or may passively resist attempts to change him. In all phases of their growth children need the appreciation, understanding, and attentive response of other people.

We may go to the other extreme and expect too little of the child. It often happens that the parents of a bright child who is a poor reader have been excessively indulgent and protective; they may also have been inconsistent in their discipline of the child during his early years.

The pervasive attitudes that children have are not the result of occasional lapses in parental patience or child care; they are the cumulative product of repeated experiences.

Learning To Look

The baby gradually learns to see details against an otherwise vague background; this paves the way to seeing words as wholes, and distinctive letters in words. As his experience widens, the preschool child learns to discriminate more closely. He will point out the doggie in the picture book and not confuse it with the kittie or with Mary's little lamb. He will select certain colors for his painting and certain toys for his playhouse. More precise perceptions also lead to more precise speech and communication.

Development Of Speech

During the preschool period, children make remarkable progress in talking. Out of their babbling sounds they begin to shape a few words of their native language. Without any formal instruction they learn to recognize language sounds, to furnish them with meanings that are suggested by their experiences, and to use many words in conversation. They recognize the meanings of many words that they hear but do not yet use. This oral vocabulary will serve the child well when he begins to learn to read; the first step in reading is to associate the printed word with an experience or with a spoken word around which many meanings have clustered.

Reading is dependent on several interrelated aspects of language development, which seldom occur singly or in isolation. Speech normally develops during the second year of life, depending on the child's physical and motor development. By his second birthday, the average child usually knows a few hundred words.

Basic to all the aspects of the child's development is the mother-child relationship. The child whose mother meets his needs affectionately and cheerfully and talks to him as she goes about her tasks or takes him for an airing, learns to listen and talk sooner and better than another child of equal ability who has been cared for in a hurried, impersonal, disinterested, or preoccupied way. If a baby is happy, he will seldom cry. The less he cries, the more time he has to babble about things that are of concern to him, though incomprehensible to us.

Children brought up in loving homes have a definite advantage over children reared in impersonal institutions. They learn to speak earlier. They talk more. They have a larger preschool vocabulary. In fact, they tend to be superior in all aspects of the language arts. However, this is not true of those who are overprotected—those whose mothers anticipate every need and give them no incentive to speak, no need to ask for what they want. These children tend to develop forms of immature or infantile speech such as lisping and baby talk.

Only children, especially girls, who enjoy a large share of their mother's attention from infancy, are usually more accelerated in language development than children who have brothers and sisters, other things being equal. Twins, who have to share their mother's love and attention, from earliest infancy, often show a lag in language development. The kind of attention and the length of time that a parent or parent substitute can give children has a real bearing on their speech and reading proficiency.

As the child grows older, his language development is facilitated in many ways—by opportunities to ask questions and obtain fairly adequate answers, to have meals with his parents, to talk with them before and after school, and to discuss with them why certain of his actions were considered either "good" or "naughty."

Varied experiences such as picnics, camping, tea parties, new things to see and hear and do, new places to visit, stimulate the child's interest in the world and increase his store of firsthand experience with it. A trip to the seashore adds a cluster of ocean words. Going to the airport or taking a plane trip acquaints the child with air travel. The zoo introduces the child to animal friends that he will meet again and again in his reading.

Just going for a walk ranks high on a child's list of pleasures. Preschool children, who are normally on the go from morning till night, will not get tired on a walk if they are allowed to stop and look when they feel like it. They may meet a friendly dog or cat, find leaves and seed pods to collect. They may walk silently, absorbed in all they see and hear. Or they may chatter incessantly. Rainy days, when there are enticing puddles that they can swish through in their waterproof galoshes, are particularly enchanting to preschool children. If the child is free to flit here and there wherever it is safe for him to venture, if he is not dragged along or hurried, he will respond eagerly when we suggest, "Let's take a walk."

TV, with all its problems, does make meaningful certain words that the child hears over and over again. However, it is not a substitute for personal contact with parents. In fact, the child whose parents allow him to look at TV hour after hour, just to keep him out of the way, gets little practice in using the words he picks up from this modern Pied Piper.

Sharing family experiences not only broadens the child's understanding but also contributes to his emotional stability. By participating and contributing as an accepted member of the family group, the child gains a sense of belonging.

Firsthand experiences make their maximum contribution to the child's speech if parents take time to listen to his adventures, encourage him to dramatize them, discuss them, and ask questions about them. Pictures or picture stories often stimulate the child to tell realistic or fanciful stories of his own. The child may like to tell stories about the pictures he has drawn himself. One boy drew a motorcycle with swirling lines all around it, which, he explained, represented the noise it made.

In encouraging verbal expression the adult should be as spontaneous and interested as the child himself. We lose the beneficial effect if we turn the child's eager account of things that have interested him into a formal recitation, or if our inquiries degenerate into nagging-

The preschool experience most frequently recalled by older children is that of listening to stories or poems read aloud by Father, Mother, Grandmother, or some other member of the family. By this means, preschool children become acquainted with the vocabulary and language patterns of literature. They like to hear favorite stories told over and over until they know them by heart. They like to supply the missing words or lines in jingles. These memories make subsequent reading easier.

To give children practice in anticipating words in sentences some parents play a game of sentence completion. They say: "Teddy, I'm going to say something to you and leave off the last word. See if you can guess what it is." Then they give sentences like:

"It's time to give Fido his           "

The child may say, "bone," "dinner," "water," or whatever makes sense. Any sensible answer should be accepted, whether or not it was the answer you had in mind. Played as a game, this exercise is fun; it is also a direct preparation for learning how to get the meaning of a word from its context—a basic word-recognition skill that the child must learn when he begins to read.

All home situations are favorable that lead children to want to acquire language skills, and help them day by day to invest spoken words with meanings.1 Some precocious children show a spontaneous interest in learning letters, reading signs and labels, writing their names. There is no reason why they should not have a chance to explore these as well as other new experiences. They are part of a developmental process that takes different forms with different children. Interest in all the language arts is natural to children who grow up in a literate environment.

Prereading Experiences

"I Want To Read, Too" | Books As Friends | Reading Aloud

Before they are two years old, children enjoy turning the pages of a book or magazine. Soon they enjoy looking at the pictures and hearing simple rhymes. They begin to look at books by themselves and to add the endings to rhyming lines that they have frequently heard. By three years of age they can sit still long enough to listen to an entire story—and to complain if the reader leaves out any parts of it.

The child should see persons who are important in his life enjoying reading; he should have books and magazines of his own to handle; he should enjoy having stories read to him; he should relate his exciting, everyday experiences to reading material; and he should have an interested listener to whom he may tell his own stories. All these experiences contribute to the child's readiness to learn to read. In addition to having a stockpile of about five thousand words, it is an advantage for him to have learned to anticipate meaning in sentences, to recognize similar sounds in spoken words, and to identify and name letter forms.

Many preschool experiences are directly related to learning to read. There are experiences that arouse the child's interest in reading, experiences that familiarize him with books and with the language of books, and experiences that constitute the first steps in acquiring word-recognition skills.

Enjoying these experiences with the child is far different from setting out to teach him to read. There are no formal reading lessons during the preschool years; no pressure to learn certain words; no overanxiety on the part of the parent, which may communicate itself to the child. His interest in books, his curiosity about printed words, and his increasing sensitivity to the letter sounds in words grow naturally, just as his oral speech does.

"I Want To Read, Too"

When a child sees Daddy reading the evening paper, Big Sister reading a letter from her boy friend, Mother consulting her cookbook, Brother reading the road signs as he drives the family car; when he hears people read aloud some passage of interest at home, in Sunday school, or in church, he begins to realize how important and pleasant it must be to read.

A tenth-grade girl accounted for her keen interest in reading by saying, "The person I have to thank for most of my reading background is my mother. Even as a harried housewife with two young children, she managed to read two or three novels and innumerable magazines a week. I used to watch her and beg her to teach me some words, and by first grade I knew enough to be thoroughly bored by Dick, Jane, Sally and their going, coming, seeing, and running!"

Parents who enjoy reading convey their enjoyment to the child long before he becomes of school age. And the desire to read is basic to all further reading development.

The role of reading in the home is described by Bonaro Over-street,2 who emphasizes the emotional overtones that make reading a vital, unforgettable experience. By means of personal experiences, she shows how books bridge the gaps between the individual as he is and as he wants to become, and between his immediate environment and the wider world of people, places, and ideas.

In speaking of books as property, Bonaro Overstreet emphasizes the joy of possession of cherished books, and one's responsibility for the care of borrowed books. She mentions the value that books have in creating an atmosphere in the home; they are "allies of silence." A family engaged in reading experiences a peace of mind that is impossible in a home in which the silence is continually shattered by the blare of radio and television and the bickering of children and adults. Finally, Mrs. Overstreet gives illustrations of the ways in which the memory of fictional incidents and lines of poetry may enhance and deepen the significance of the present moment.

Books as Friends

Love of books begins in babyhood. Long before babies can walk, they can handle linen picture books. If Tommy grabs the magazine Daddy is reading, Daddy can help him find the pictures in it and let him turn the pages, one at a time, very gently.

We can help children acquire a love of books just as we help them learn to love animals; we must take time, over and over, to guide them in the gentle handling of books. Teachers have noted that children who have learned to love books at home handle their schoolbooks carefully.

Books should be lying around in every room of the house, including the child's room. Picture books and attractively illustrated stories that the child has enjoyed hearing invite him to have a look for himself. This is a prelude to independent reading.

Reading Aloud

Reading aloud to children has many values. It introduces them to the delights that lie between the covers of books; it acquaints them with the vocabulary and language patterns of printed materials; it arouses their curiosity and desire to unlock for themselves the stories and characters imprisoned in the pages of print. Sharing a loved book also brings parent and child closer together emotionally.

As a father reading to his own small children, Leonard Wib-berley 3 cautions parents not to read aloud from a sense of duty just because reading aloud is good for children. Adults should read to children only books that they themselves enjoy. Reading should be fun for both child and parent. As the parent reads some part of the book that he has enjoyed tremendously and sees the same delight on the face of his child, in that moment he is one with the child.

Parents should also be sure that the child is ready for the book. They should not be in a hurry to share their favorite stories or poems. At five or seven years a child is not likely to respond to The Wind in the Willows or Treasure Island, but at eight or nine he may listen enthralled.

If the books the parents select are boring or otherwise unsuitable, reading aloud may do more harm than good. It may create a dislike of reading. One child, at bedtime in his upstairs room, expressed his protest in this masterpiece of mixed-up prepositions: "What did you bring that book I didn't want to be read to out of up for?"

The following are some criteria for selecting books to read to children:

Books that give enjoyment of imagery and rhythm as well as of character and plot.

Books that contribute to the child's understanding of himself and confirm and extend his everyday experience. An anonymous writer put it this way:
"A good book has grass and earth and familiar things on a level with the child's eyes; but it also has treetops and wind and stars to draw his gaze upward."

Books that go beyond the real world into the realm of imagination. Books that cover a wide variety of interests—contemporary works and children's classics, fiction and nonfiction, prose and poetry.

Books that are of interest to both the child and the adult who is reading to him.

Adhering too rigidly to a reading schedule may take some of the joyful surprise out of the experience. However, the best time for reading aloud is usually before bedtime in the evening. Then the children gather around, sit on the floor, or curl up in a chair to listen expectantly as Father or Mother announces the title and the chapter. One chapter a night is usually enough.

There should be some rules, too. Children may wiggle as little children must wiggle. They may look at the pictures while Father or Mother reads. This may result in comments and questions at the end of the chapter. But they may not play with trains or planes or do other things that distract attention from the reading. If they do, they are warned; if they persist, they are sent to bed.

As the children grow older and have learned to read well enough to hold the attention of an audience, they may take turns reading their favorite stories during the family reading hour.

Being read aloud to is an experience that children cherish. Older children have set down their recollections of listening to parents or grandparents reading aloud to them, and have speculated about the influence this may have had on their love of reading:

I am quite an avid reader now and I think my grandmother, who read aloud to me is largely responsible for it. Each month I read about one novel and two or three short stories.

My little brothers are very poor readers. They have no interest in it at all. I think this is partly due to the fact that my grandmother was ill and could not pay much attention to their reading interests and habits.

There are really two main factors which encouraged my reading. One was my home environment, and the other equally important factor was my nursery, kindergarten, and elementary school experiences.

The first book I ever owned was a linen book at a very early age. From that time on every evening either my mother or grandmother would read me a story before I went to bed. Later when I was older and could read, I would read parts of the story and my mother or grandmother other parts. Reading before going to bed became a habit, so much so, that I still feel I have to read a little while before going to bed. It seems strange, but I can still remember large parts of the stories that were read to me out of Golden Books, Fairy Tale Books, and the Book-house.

At the age of two I started to nursery school where my love of reading was enhanced.

Story time was always a wonderful magic time for me at school, and I could hardly wait for the time when I could do my own reading. So, when I was old enough to start school, I was as eager as a beaver. Learning to read, so far as I can remember, was always pleasant. I can't remember ever being pushed or scolded in my reading.

I am glad I had such a pleasant introduction to reading and learned to really like to read. It must be terrible not to like to read; I can't imagine it!

Roots Of Word Recognition

There are many steps to becoming an independent reader—one who can pronounce an unfamiliar printed word or get its meaning in other ways. Some of these steps can be taken during the preschool years. Children who have had these prereading experiences are usually ready for the teacher's regular instruction in reading.

Some preschool children learn of their own accord to recognize a number of words before they come to school. They recognize certain words in the storybooks as Mother reads to them. "What is this word? How do you say it?" they ask. They may ask Mother or the nursery-school teacher to point out on the page where it says "little black sheep." They want to know "what that sign says." They hear and see the name of their favorite cereal in a TV commercial, and see it on the cereal box in the kitchen. Incidentally, some trade names are so firmly impressed on children that they later insist that "does" is spelled "Duz." One mother said, "We never taught Donald the alphabet; he just picked it up by himself." This learning seemed less mysterious when we found out that Donald often played with alphabet blocks—usually in the presence of some obliging adult who was ready to name the letters for him.

The child may be given some practice in searching for the meaning of spoken words, recognizing similar sounds in the words he hears and speaks, and learning the names of the letters, not necessarily in their alphabetical order. Reading experts disagree about whether parents should give the child systematic practice in these important word-recognition skills. But they do agree that if such practice is given at all, it should be in the spirit of play.

Some definite suggestions for parents have been given by Paul McKee.4 These, he insists should be carried out in a game atmosphere —no pushing, no shoving, no staying at it until the child becomes bored or restless or inattentive.

1. Practice in guessing the word from the sentence in which it occurs. The mother would say, "Teddy, I'm going to say something to you and leave off the last word. See if you can tell me what the word might be." Then, keeping busy with her housework, she would give him sentences such as:

"I'm washing the dishes with hot            "
"Let's put the clothes out in the sun to    ."
"It's time to give Spot his           "

She would accept any word that makes sense—not require him to give the exact word she was thinking of. In the last sentence, she may have been thinking of "dinner," but if Teddy said "bone," that was a sensible answer, too.

This game directs the child's attention to the meaning of a word in a sentence. Later, in school, his first step in getting the meaning of a printed word he does not know will be to inquire what the context seems to demand.

2. Practice in distinguishing the initial sounds of words. During the preschool years there is plenty of time to learn them gradually, one at a time. Key words for each sound help the child to remember them:

b as in ball                             j — jump, etc.
c — come                             ch — chilly
d — daddy                            sh — show
f — fun                                  wh — what
g — go                                  th — thumb, and so on.
h — help

This exercise is oral. No printed words or letters are shown. The child sees small objects or pictures of things. Those that begin with the same consonant sound may be grouped for practice: m for man, milk, mailman, etc. Several groups of objects or pictures may be put in a box, and the child may be asked to take out all those that begin with an m sound or an f sound. We must be sure that the picture or object represents the word intended; for example, we should not confuse wheel with bicycle.

The child may recognize sounds in words but not know what we mean by "begin with the same sound." This he learns as we repeatedly show him, orally, that ship and shop and shoe begin with the same sound.

3. Practice in distinguishing letter forms from one another. The child needs to know the letter names so that he can talk about them. He can learn the names of letters as easily as he can learn the names of objects. A is the name we give to this shape: A, and also to this shape, a. At this stage it is not necessary to teach the alphabet in sequence. Later, as an aid to looking up words in the dictionary, he will learn the alphabet in segments—the letters he will find in the first quarter of the dictionary, then the second, third, and fourth.

To check on his ability to name the different letter forms, you may print the letters in squares on a piece of cardboard such as you get from the laundry:

As you name a letter, the child can cover it up with a small cardboard square.

Slow-learning children should learn letter names one or two at a time; they should be absolutely sure of them before they are introduced to a new letter. When we move too fast, children become confused and uncertain about their ability to identify any letters correctly. As Shakespeare said, "Wisely and slow; they stumble who go fast."

4. Practice in associating letter forms with their sounds. This is phonics. Parents may well leave this step to teachers, and merely reinforce the child's school learning by means of games like this:

"I'll say three words: toy, tell, ten. Do they all begin alike? Yes, they begin with the letter t." After the t sound has been thoroughly learned, as it occurs in familiar words, you can say, "Now see if I can catch you. Do these words all begin with the T sound: top, toy, boy? Which begin with t; which begin with another letter sound?"

For another type of game, print a letter on a large card and say, "I'm going to say a word that begins with this letter. What letter is it?"

You might start with one or two letters, such as b or m, and see if the child can (1) pick out objects or pictures that begin with the b sound, (2) recognize the letter form of b or B when he sees it as one of several letters, and (3) associate the letter b with the sound of b in familiar words. Thus each of these three kinds of practice would be applied to the same letter.

Some children will learn very quickly to distinguish similar sounds in words, to give the correct names of letters, and to associate the letter sound with its printed symbols. Don't hold them back. Let them go ahead as fast as they want to, provided they are making the associations accurately.

On the other hand, we must be careful not to make a child feel that he must hurry up and do these exercises and get them right.

A Unique Experiment

An experiment at Yale University5 demonstrated that preschool children could learn to read, write, and take dictation. They learned these skills for themselves; they did not have to be taught. Learning was fun for them. The role of the adult was to provide opportunities and respond appropriately to the child's spontaneous actions.

This experiment involved thirty-five children aged two to five. Each child was allowed to play with an electric typewriter. At first he just pounded several keys at once. Then, as he began to strike separate keys, the adult beside him would say the letter or number he had struck. Soon he began to associate a particular key with a particular response. He also noticed the letter as it appeared on the sheet of paper. Eventually he was saying the letter he had struck before the adult did.

After playing with the typewriter for a while, the child was allowed to scribble as he pleased on the blackboard. Before long he was making letters like the ones he had typewritten.

After he had learned the letters he was able to read and copy simple sentences, or hear and copy them from his own dictation on a recording machine.

If it were definitely proved that children aged two to five could learn to read by this or any other method, would it be desirable for them to do so? What idea of reading would they get? How would this idea be different from the idea they would get by observing persons who loved to read, hearing a wide variety of literature read to them, and handling books and looking at them? Moreover, what parent would have the time and patience to respond to each letter the child typed as the experimenter did? Even if these responses could be made automatically by a machine, what would be the loss in personal contact between parent and child?
If the news of this experiment should send many parents out to buy electric typewriters for their three-year-old children, what might happen? Would most parents permit the child to take the initiative all the time, or would they, at least occasionally, feel impelled to teach? If they did, they would be defeating the main purpose of the procedure, which was to develop the little child's initiative and curiosity, and give him delight in his own competence.

During the preschool period it is more important to establish pleasant associations with reading, to foster " 'satiable curtiosities," as Kipling's elephant's child expressed it, and to stimulate a desire to learn to read, than to strive for any specific accomplishments.

Summary: Prereading Achievements And How They Are Acquired

Desire to read

Seeing others enjoy reading Being read to Handling and looking at books

Varied experiences that give meaning to words

New things to see, hear, and handle Trips to farm, seashore, airport, etc.
Play activities alone or with friends or pets

A good speaking vocabulary and ability to speak in simple sentences

Being listened to Opportunities to talk with family and others Having questions answered Hearing clear, simple, precise speech

Ability to identify similarities and differences of sounds in words

Listening to carefully pronounced words, and repeating them Games to identify words that begin alike and that rhyme
Knowledge of the names of the letters

ABC blocks and books Games to recognize letters when they are named

In a composition on "How I Would Help My Children Become Good Readers," a high school boy gave this excellent advice:

If I wanted to get my child to be a good reader I would start him the way I was started. First I would take him for walks and teach him about nature. I think this would make him more inquisitive, which is very important to being a good reader.
Next when he was old enough to understand a few words I would start reading to him. I think this would interest him in books.

When he was older and knew how to read, I would encourage him as much as possible. I would keep him supplied with as much reading material as he needed.

I would also show him the library and how to use it. Then he would be able to get all the reading material he wanted.

This teen-ager, with the insight characteristic of so many young adolescents, emphasized the three essentials: a curious mind, a desire to read, and available reading material.

Equally sound suggestions to parents for preparing the preschool child for success in beginning reading were given by a gifted high school girl:

I think about the only way to encourage a young reader is to make reading pleasant. Any child who enjoys being read to will want to learn how to read for himself. I think it is very important that a child is introduced at an early preschool age to books so that reading becomes a part of him. This really is not a bit hard in this day and age as there are so many inexpensive books that can be bought for preschool children.

I think also it's important that the book should be suitable to the age of the child. A child will not want to sit still to listen to a story he does not understand, nor will a book that is suitable for a much younger child captivate his interest.

I think his early school experience has an important effect on a child's reading habits. A child, regardless of his actual chronological age, who is not ready for school will not learn reading as easily or as well as the child who is prepared to fit into the routine of school and hold a span of attention- The child who is not ready to sit still in a classroom may only associate reading with having to sit still. I do not think a child should ever be pushed too hard or scolded. Some children will naturally learn to read quicker and easier than others.

Given preschool preparation of this kind, children should be ready to continue their growth in reading and respond to school instruction.

Questions And Answers

1. Should parents ever talk "baby talk" to their children?

When the baby is just beginning to fumble with speech, baby-talk games may encourage him to make sounds. Refusing to speak the child's language at this stage may slow down his speech development. However, he must soon begin to learn to make the sounds of the language we all speak. To this end, we must speak to him slowly and clearly, accurately and intelligently.

2. Are children who try to learn two languages during the preschool years handicapped in learning to read?

Preschool children who try to learn two languages are usually somewhat retarded in both. There are, of course, exceptions. It has been suggested that the retardation may be due to a reluctance to abandon the mother's language rather than to lack of intelligence or verbal ability. The language heard in infancy, Dorothea McCarthy 6 has said, lias deep emotional roots." The child may become emotionally disturbed if he is forbidden to use the language he has associated with his parents from the earliest years. Therefore, children who need to learn two languages should learn to use both languages correctly in the situations in which each is appropriate.

3. Should I teach my child the alphabet?

A child is better prepared for beginning reading if he knows the names of the letters. You can teach him to write each letter large as soon as he learns to name it. You teach the name of the letter B, not the sound, "Bun." Later he will group the letters as follows:
 
ABCDEFG H I J K L M
NOPQRST U VWXYZ

letters near the beginning of the dictionary letters in the middle, after the beginning group letters in the middle, toward the end letters near the end of the dictionary.
 
This grouping will help the child to find words quickly in the dictionary.

4. Are prereading experiences a disadvantage under certain conditions?

Two children, both of whom were above average in mental ability, came from very different home backgrounds. One, whom we shall call Joanne, could identify letters and small words when she came to school. She said her grandmother had helped her and showed her how. When she entered school she was already achieving at a first-grade level in reading and arithmetic. At the end of the year she had all A's on her report card and her measured achievement was average for the group. However, this apparently did not represent much specific additional learning for her. She appeared to be underachieving academically. She was eager to learn, enjoyed school, and was a leader in her class. Others depended on her. The A's probably represented social usefulness rather than actual achievement in reading and spelling and arithmetic. Academically, she was marking time in the first grade. The teacher had not built on her preschool achievement.

The other child, whom we shall call Jane, had a poor family background. She could not identify any of the letters when she came to school. She was not a leader and did not take part in discussions. At the end of the year her marks were all C's, but the Wide Range Achievement Test showed that she had made gains of more than a year in reading and arithmetic.

What does this comparison mean? Not that children should not have prereading experiences during the preschool years, but that teachers should not allow the child who comes to school with a good background of reading experience to languish in idleness or devote all his energy to social activities.

With effective teaching, prereading experience should help a child to make more rapid progress in the first grade than he otherwise would. Teaching that focuses on the average or below-average learner does not help the initially better reader to make commensurate progress; he may get into the habit of underachieving.

5. Why is reading aloud to children sometimes unsuccessful?

There are many possible reasons. If the adult dislikes reading aloud, or reads from a sense of duty, his attitude is communicated to the child. Adult and child should both enjoy the story. The child may not be quite ready for the story the parent is reading—though the parent remembers that he loved it when he was the child's age. Times change, and children's interests shift somewhat from generation to generation. Sometimes the child's unreadiness to listen may be merely temporary; something else had absorbed his attention for the moment. It is better to recognize this immediate interest than to try to override it. Older children, especially those in early adolescence, sometimes prefer an unshared reading experience. At such times they guard their private world with fierce jealousy, and resent any adult intrusion into it.

6. How can parents foster a child's love of reading?

"Liking to read just comes naturally to my child," you may say. Probably it doesn't. Without being aware of it, you have done, and are still doing, many things that cause your child to love reading and to want to read. As we said in the last chapter, he has seen you reading and has gathered that reading gives you pleasure and profit. He has listened to the enchanting stories that you have read him, and he wants to hear more than you have time to read to him. This stimulates him to want to learn to read for himself. As he looks at the books while you read to him, he begins to recognize certain words, and realizes that those black marks on white paper have meaning. Even after he has started school, you should continue to read him books that are beyond his own present reading ability; this will create further interest in the world of books that he will someday be able to explore himself.

Are You Ready To Move Onto The Next Lesson? Click Here...