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From: lew@ihuxr.UUCP (Lew Mammel, Jr.)
Newsgroups: net.kids
Subject: Re: Early reading programs
Message-ID: <761@ihuxr.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 10-Nov-83 18:17:41 EST
Article-I.D.: ihuxr.761
Posted: Thu Nov 10 18:17:41 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 11-Nov-83 07:05:29 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, Il
Lines: 48

When our first child, Lisa, gained mobility (crawling) one of the first
things she headed for was a shelf loaded with paperback books. My wife
and I faced a real moment of truth. We just couldn't see ourselves
chasing Lisa away from the books - that would certainly have counted
as a negative first experience with books! On the other hand we didn't
relish having our book collection shredded. What we did was hover over
her saying "nice books" etc. while we joined in the general fondling
and riffling party. This worked out pretty well. Unloading the bookshelf
became one of Lisa's standard activities, and she never tore a single
page. Lisa is now in the third grade and is a regular reading demon.

I am recounting this experience in response to Karen Summers-Horton's
remarks about early reading programs. I think she is perceiving reading
in abstract terms which are inappropriate to the infant's experience.
We think of reading in terms of abstract information acquisition. The
infant is exploring her sensory world. I think a positive concrete
encounter with the tools of reading technology is excellent preparation
for learning to use these tools at a later time.

Actually, my reaction to Karen's remarks is extremely negative. The
program she describes sounds deadly to me. I especially hate the phrase
"make learning FUN". This certainly seems to imply that learning is
naturally dull and requires considerable effort to make it otherwise.

Anyway, this flashcard program sounds more like "make learning torture".
Let the kid have books. You know, cardboard books with four pages.
Then maybe a few words sprinkled in with the pictures. After a while
the kid will notice them and take an interest in them. Our experience
was that our children started reading rather abruptly when they decided
to do so. Lisa started at a younger age than Max (now first grade) but
he really took off once he got started. I understand it's common for
boys to start later than girls. Pushing flashcards in the face of a one
year old sounds like a real recipe for disaster to me.

Perhaps the most important thing is to read a lot yourself. Kids are
highly imitative (as we all know) and if you read a lot so will they.
Note that "reading" consists in holding a book in your hands and
turning the pages. Naturally, this makes more sense if there is something
nice to look at on the pages. If the child learns that "reading" is
pleasurable, he will continue to regard it as such when the words
start to become noticeable.

I know I'm rambling, but I'm afraid I'm the typical proud parent that
is all to ready to expound to anyone and everyone on the correct
techniques and how wonderful his own kids turned out etc. etc., so
understand that these remarks are my own opinions.

	Lew Mammel, Jr. ihuxr!lew