Start early to nurture your children's reading habit

Start early to nurture your children's reading habit

By Maria Endah Hulupi

JAKARTA (JP): Establishing a fun atmosphere and pleasant
experience with books at home helps introduce the written word to
infants as toys, stimulate toddlers to learn how to read and
encourage positive reading habits in older children.

"Parents are not aware that developing good habits in reading
can be nurtured in children from as early as their first year,"
said child psychologist Seto Mulyadi.

"And instead of carrying around baby accessories like diapers,
milk bottles, tissues and extra clothes, it is better if parents
take children's books," he added.

The main objective here is to introduce story books, which
usually contain colorful and interesting drawings to babies as
part of their collection of toys. "Let them see, hold, bite and
just play with them. The shape, the colors, the sound that
children's books can make and the materials with which they are
made of interests them," he said.

Once babies reach their second or third year, parents can
start to introduce children's books that contain words as well as
reading them interesting stories, which nourish their
imagination.

However, he pointed out it is important to create a fun
atmosphere, with active involvement and dialogue to stimulate
children's cognitive-affective-psychomotoric abilities during
story-telling. This also helps them see that reading a book is an
interesting experience and in turn can foster their fondness for
playing with books before finally enjoying reading them.

"Parents can invite them to sing along, to make playful
movements like jumping and scratching their heads, while reading
the book. Communicate with them, do some guessing games, let them
ask," he explained.

"They may ask for more story-telling sessions and parents
should not be surprised if their children ask them to read the
same story over and over again because in their imagination,
children can relate themselves to the characters in the story,"
Seto said.

It is only when children enjoy their story-telling experience,
that they learn that books are entertaining and informative. And
if their parents are too busy to read for them, they could start
to "read" themselves.

According to Seto, toddlers at the age of three may have
developed the ability to learn the alphabet. "Parents may not
notice it but when they are strolling in malls, children can
recognize McDonald's and other signs, for example," he explained.

However, Seto added that children may need examples from
parents because children are likely to imitate positive reading
habits from their parents.

Build up a sort of library and fill it with their books, let
the children do anything they like with their books other than
reading them, like building a house, arranging them differently
or other such activities.

Parents can take their two or three-year-old children to the
children's section of bookstores to choose their own story books,
their preference usually falling to those with imaginary
characters.

"After a few years this process becomes internalized, parents
can take them to meet book authors or to book-signing events,
when they are older" he added.

School-aged children have usually developed the ability to
concentrate and to understand abstract subjects, that's why
parents are advised to introduce more serious children books,
though still in a playful atmosphere.

This is important because children can learn more effectively
if reading is made a fun activity, a method that highlights the
weak point of strict formal education.

"Children become less interested or may distance themselves
from school subjects if teachers adopt a formal manner to explain
difficult and abstract subjects," he cautioned.

However, he added, with the right techniques preschool
children can learn a lot of things and develop their abilities,
citing that those whose parents are from different nationalities
can learn several languages because of the pleasant learning
atmosphere. "They are hugged and caressed while their parents
gently speak, sing or play with them," he said, describing it as
an effective learning approach.

With that approach, even difficult subjects like maths can be
introduced to preschool children. "Teach children to count their
own footsteps and compare it to their parent's and explain to
them why this is so," he added.

However, if schoolchildren do not thrive in the formal
environment due to their teachers' failure to make them
interested, parents should be there to teach them to understand
the subjects.