Supporting Parents in Guiding Language and Literacy Development

06/23/2021

Supporting Parents in Guiding Language and Literacy Development

Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.
Margaret Mead

Today’s parents often struggle to make sense of advertising messages urging them to hurry to teach their young children - even babies - to read (usually by purchasing an expensive product promising to make this possible). Dr. Bisa Batten Lewis provides an alternative message in her Exchange article, "I Want My Baby to Read: Supporting Parents in Guiding Early Language and Literacy Development,” that forms the basis of an Out of the Box Training Kit, Supporting Parents in Guiding Early Language and Literacy Development.

She provides a number of reasons why teaching babies to read is not developmentally appropriate practice. Here is a sampling:

"Babies don’t read; they memorize.
Reading instruction is too formal for babies who learn best through play.
Other areas of development suffer.
Reading early will not make your baby a genius."

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