The Importance of Books in a Young Child’s Life

There is no question that all parents want their children to be successful, in whatever they do; this is especially true when it comes to succeeding in school. These days’ schools are expecting young children to know their alphabet and beginning to read and write in kindergarten, adding extra pressure for parents. In response to that pressure many companies have now developed products that claim that if you watch their DVD’s, and use their flash cards you will teach your child to read, even before they can talk. Although these types of media have a place in helping a child reach their reading potential, books should still be the number one medium to use. When parents start reading to their infants they help develop their child’s language skills, early literary skills and influence the child’s later success in school.

Many tests and studies have been conducted over the years on the influence of reading to young children while in the home. Many studies have shown that the home was the number one “predictor of a child’s language and literacy development” (Roberts 356) later on in life. This is not that big of surprise since the most important time for language acquisition for a child is in the second year of their lives (Lawhon 114). So when a parent reads to a child it introduces new vocabulary that can be associated with an item on the page. Also when parents read to their children they usually talk slower, and punctuate the sounds in the words more clearly, this will help children make the connection on how sounds become words. Reading also helps children learn about conversation and, parents can use reading time, to get their children to think critical at any age by asking question and allowing their child to ask ques...

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...a. ““Just a Taking Book? Word Learning From Watching Baby Videos.” British Journal of Developmental Psychology. 27(2009). Education Resource Information Center. Web. July 13, 2011

Michael Robb, in his paper “Just a Taking Book? Word Learning From Watching Baby Videos.” (2009), his paper address how (or if) children under the age of two are able to learn words from screen media, and if so how much this would influence their language. In order to answer this question he conducted a study of 12 to 15 month old children and their parents over a six week period where they would watch the baby wordsworth DVD to see if it would effect a child language acquisition. He found that children under age of two did not gain any new vocabulary from watching this baby DVD. He established a formal relationship with his audience, his intended reader was this peers in psychology.