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.