Wanderlust: Expat Life & Style in Thailand April / May 2017: Health & Wellness Issue | Page 45

Kids & Education
eventually, entire passages of text.
Even if a word is unfamiliar, by ab-
sorbing information from the con-
text, children deepen their compre-
hension and will be better able to
determine an unknown word’s mean-
ing the next time it’s encountered.
So fret not: In many ways, read-
ing is still reading, no matter how
pixelated.
2
BEING BOOK
SMART IS
WORTH IT
Reading is one of the best forms of
activity for the brain, particularly as
the mind develops through child-
hood. Whether alone or with a par-
ent, friend or teacher, reading helps
the mind to grow in ability and to de-
velop language skills. It teaches how
to listen effectively, too.
Children as young as toddlers
have a higher aptitude for learning
if they are regularly read to. Literacy
and numeracy skills increase in chil-
dren when they read five times a
week, and some studies have found
that children who are exposed to
reading before preschool are more
likely to excel across all areas of ed-
ucation, in part due to the self-disci-
pline reading helps to foster.
Reading can even affect the way
children view the world, catalyzing
their ability to grasp abstract con-
cepts, think logically, recognize cause
and effect, and use good judgment.
They can then apply these think-
ing skills to their lives, using them as
tools to cope with stressf ul, new, or
challenging situations.
A storyline featuring a move to a
new town, for example, can be read
to children going through the same
process to help them deal with their
own anxieties.
3
EXPERIMENTING
WITH
BILINGUALISM
How does being bilingual affect a
child’s ability to read? Though the
concept of teaching a writing system
with a different sound for the same
letter may appear to complicate mat-
ters, it’s actually not as perplexing as
you might think. Even if your child
speaks languages that don’t share
the same writing system (say, English
and Chinese), the learning process
should be fine.
In fact, research that examined
whether learning to read in one lan-
guage helped or impeded learning
to read in another with a different
writing system found no significant
differences between the monolin-
gual and the bilingual children — as
long as the children were able to un-
derstand a similar number of spoken
words. Essentially, there are advan-
tages for both monolingual and bi-
lingual learners in understanding a
larger vocabulary of spoken words —
something reading helps achieve.
While many parents stick with one
language while their children learn
the process of translating symbols
into sounds, others prefer to avoid
separating the reading of one lan-
guage from another. This means they
introduce reading in both languages
at the same time.
Your approach should focus on
what’s best for your child. If your
child appears overwhelmed by tak-
ing on both languages simultane-
ously, consider rolling back on one of
them. The opportunity to introduce
the other language will present itself
when the child is ready.
4
READING
TOGETHER IS
FUNDAMENTAL
For many families, watching TV is a
daily activity. But the problem with
TV (and game apps) are the minimal
thought and sparse social interac-
tions involved.
When children pick up a book, they
embark on journeys much more en-
riching than watching SpongeBob or
playing Plants vs. Zombies. With read-
ing, kids must imagine the settings
and the characters’ motivations —
and sometimes even their faces, too.
You can join your child and make
reading something you do togeth-
er. A report by Scholastic found that
83 percent of kids aged 6 to 17 said
they enjoyed someone reading to
them. Try to read with your child at
least once a day at around the same
time. By engaging in this activity to-
gether, not only are you teaching that
reading is important to you — and
therefore should be to them — but
you’ll also give your child the chance
to speak with you about the book
and its issues.
5
SECOND THAT
EMOTION
Reading surely develops academ-
ic dexterity. But there’s more: A child
who reads benefits from a range of
emotional advantages, including im-
proved self-image. Meanwhile, those
who don’t or can’t read often have
low self-esteem and may harbor a
sense that the world is against them,
leading to problems in and out of
school. By encouraging your child
to read, many of these issues can be
avoided.
But for parents of a reluctant read-
er, it’s not always that simple. Frank
Serafini, an author of children’s books
and professor of literacy education
and children’s literature at Arizona
State University, believes there is no
such thing as a child who hates to
read — only children who have not
yet found the right book.
PRESCHOOL
LITERACY
MILESTONES
There are a number of reading
stepping stones children reach
on the way to literacy. Students
vary a great deal in how and
how fast they learn, of course,
and those with learning dis-
abilities or attention difficulties
may have different reading tar-
gets. In general, though, from
ages 3 to 4, many preschoolers
become able to:
¬ ¬ Enjoy listening to and talking
about storybooks
¬ ¬ Understand that print carries
a message
¬ ¬ Make attempts to read
and write
¬ ¬ Identify familiar signs
and labels
¬ ¬ Participate in rhym-
ing games
¬ ¬ Identify some letters and
make some letter-sound
matches
¬ ¬ Use known letters (or their
best attempt to write the
letters) to represent writ-
ten language, especially
for meaningful words like
their names.
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