G'morning Vern,

 VH> I just read an interesting study that found that READING to children
 VH> has little effect -- but HAVING books in the house and valuing them
 VH> ("Oh, look, Suzie!  Grandma gave you a BOOK!") does have an effect.

When I was a country teacher,  the number of homes visited which 
had no books in sight was apalling - and I suspect its worse now 
with TV, games and suchlike ...  shudder, shudder !

As to reading to kids,  get hold of Robinson Forbes's "Reading 
Revolution" (ISBN 0-9597902-1-7);  this ex-headmaster developed 
and tested his read-aloud-and-point scheme which works like magic 
on all levels of beginning reading.
.

He uses an epidiascope to project a kid's favourite book up in 
front of a reading class,  reading aloud from it WHILE pointing at 
the clumps, words or syllables being voiced.

His data shows that doing this for 30 minutes twice a week 
accelorates all beginning readers at significant rates.

My spin on this is that reading to kids is 80% wasted effort if 
the reader isn't showing the child what's being voiced - at all 
ages.  "Monkey see, monkey do" is exactly how youngsters learn. 

 VH> I agree -- I think, however, in the US at least, we simply by fad have
 VH> some answers.

Same the whole world over... with most of them bought to amuse Dad 
or Mum.

 VH> How about "Neonatal cognitive learning?"

Or just "Early learning" ... did you know that recent ultra-sound 
and MRI scans have confirmed surgical and observational findings 
from 2 centuries back that fetuses learn and rehearse behaviours 
before birth ?  Grasping, mouthing and breathing feature 
prominently, of course - and undoubtedly similar activities will 
be taking place in the brain....

We're celebrating Dyslexic Week here in NZ,  and the flood of 
articles all proclaim that reading is a new behaviour that has 
popped up in the last 5000 years - without having any evolved 
brain parts to support it.

I'm developing a contary view that brains evolved to permit the 
`reading' of tracks, weather, the behaviour of others, social 
situations and the like -  along with the bits needed to converse 
verbally - over the last 50,000 years or more.

What has developed over the last 5,000 years or more is our 
ability to represent experience by marks on flat surfaces that 
make sense to that `reading' capability.

In short,  that reading came first - writing is what we developed 
ourselves over the last 5,000 years.

How does that sit with you ?

Miles.
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