Alex never lets me get through a book we're reading together. He turns the pages to the pictures he wants to see and talk about. So, I've just been doing that ever since he first showed an ability to handle books and turn pages. Since I could never get a story out this way, I took to reading to him at lunch time. That way he was in the high chair and I could hold the book and read it to him. For months now, he hasn't cared for that. He wants to hold the book and turn the pages himself.
When he was just about a year, he would take my finger and point to pictures as if to ask what they were. Then, I'd also explain what was going on in the illustration and point out other things. He got hooked on this, so we spent a LOT of time in his non-fiction picture books. It went on from there. Now he wants to have 'conversations' (his version) about certain pages if they contain images he really likes, even if it's a storybook. So, now, in 'reading' time, we could spend the entire time on two pages of a 10-20 page book.
Here's the thing, though. Is this considered 'reading' to your child? Is this the kind of reading development educators are aiming for?? We're not really 'reading' much at all unless I can find some way to hold the book a million miles from him AND on the rare occasion that he won't get upset. Now I'm worried that I actually haven't been reading the stories to him enough.
Thanks all. And thank you to the teachers and those of you who told me what you heard from teachers. I was hoping to get opinions from people who were either experienced in teaching reading or who specifically studied the developmental process of reading. When I went along with how he wanted to do it, I was thinking that I had to make sure this was fun to him. And, now, it definitely is one of his favorite things to do. Even if I'm not playing with him directly, he'll go to his bookshelf on his own and sit down with several of them.
Of course, this made reading to him at bedtime NOT the thing to do. Like Mary describes with Taylor, it became a fun game to him instead of sleep inducing. I might as well have started singing nursery rhyme games to him. I wound up confining reading time to play time. The only time Alex gets read to at bedtime is on nights he has trouble sleeping and Dan will go in and read one of the C.S. Lewis books to him. Novel form, very few illustrations, paperback - nothing for Alex to look at. He just hears Dan's voice for a while. It almost seemed counterproductive, as if we had to keep books from him at night, because they're too exciting on their own.
From what I'm reading in your responses, it seems like that is the goal at this age. Books are a big source of fun to him.
Oh Yay!
January 16, 2009
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