Making the Most of Reading Aloud to Babies: Tips Matched to Science, Infant Brain Development, and Kids’ Books
BIRMINGHAM, Mich., March 5 /PRNewswire/ — It’s a well-known fact that
reading aloud to children encourages language development. What might be
less well known is that the way adults read aloud can add measurable
impact.
“At different stages, the brains of babies and young children are
primed to receive certain kinds of stimulation,” says Vicki Vergeldt,
founder and president of StorySTARS, Inc., on the web at
http://www.mystorystars.com. “Parents can make the most of reading aloud by
varying what and how they read aloud according to where their child is
developmentally.”
Research in the last two decades shows that the way we speak to babies
and young children directly affects vocabulary size and can show up as
higher scores on standardized language and intelligence tests later in a
child’s development, notes Shiri Katz-Gershon, Ph.D., StorySTARS’ vice
president of research and product development.
Prenatally and during the first five or six months of life, for
example, babies enjoy and will benefit from books with rhymes. Rhymes cause
adults to exaggerate the melody of their speech, to vary their pace, and
often to move in ways that accentuate the rhymes. Babies love this and are
very sensitive to it.
“This sensitivity is programmed into babies because it helps them
figure out where individual words begin and end in the flow of speech,” Dr.
Katz- Gershon explains.
To put this knowledge into a format that is fun and easy for parents to
apply with infants and young children, StorySTARS developed a product
called The Big Bookmark(TM), also available in Spanish as El Gran
Separador(TM). On a set of five illustrated oversized “bookmarks,”
read-aloud tips guide parents through the stages of language development.
The tips vary by stage to include: how and what to read aloud, how to
engage a baby’s attention and enhance interaction while reading aloud, and
how to include an older sibling.
StorySTARS(TM) The Big Bookmark(TM) Foundations Set and El Gran
Separador(TM) Conjunto Fundaciones for the parents and caregivers of babies
ages prenatal through 12 months are available now online at
http://www.mystorystars.com.
SOURCE StorySTARS, Inc.
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