Ready 4 Learning

What your parents did to help your literacy growth and development - cont'd


I am still struck by Nada's comment, "The most important thing that makes a difference to children's literacy development and later success at school is the amount of ordinary daily talk they experience." If this is so, what's hampering the development of this strongest "root" of literacy in young children today? What might have changed in young children's environments in recent years that may be contributing to the following daunting statistic: 1 in every 4 children is experiencing difficulties by the time they enter Kindergarten, with the greatest number of these coming from middle income homes? (See www.ecmap.ca for a Fact Sheet entitled "Why Early Childhood Development Matters" for further information)


You probably have thoughts about this to share, so please respond with your comments! 


I suspect the answer to the question "What's changed?" is a combination of factors - some with big implications, and others with less. Here's just one of these factors to think about. . . Forward facing strollers!

Did you know that strollers haven't always faced forward? In the 19th century, they were designed so that infants faced the person pushing them. It actually wasn't until the late 1960s that collapsible strollers emerged, with engineering constraints causing them to face forward. It makes sense that babies who face ahead cannot see their parents or caregivers and thus will have more difficulty interacting with them. So if babies spend a significant amount of time during their early years in forward-facing strollers, might it impede their language learning?


Britain's National Literacy Trust engaged a research team to look into this question. It concluded  that mothers talked to their children twice as much during the toward-facing trial journey, and they also laughed more. When a stroller pusher can't easily see the things that attract a baby's attention, valuable opportunities for interaction can be missed! And these missed opportunities add up over time. 


You can read more about this study at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/02/opinion/02zeedyk.html


This might seem like a small thing, but perhaps one with big implications!

This week, plan to look into the forward facing stroller question yourself. Keep track of how many forward-facing strollers you see, and compare that with the number of the toward-facing kind. Watch to see who is talking more with the children being pushed . . .