CC BY
13
2. High PC, Klass P. Literacy promotion: an essential component of primary care pediatric practice. Pediatrics 2014;134:404-9.
3. Karrass J, Braungart-Rieker JM. Effects of shared parent-infant book reading on early language acquisition. J Appl Dev Psychol 2005;26:133-48.
4. Storch SA, Whitehurst GJ. The role of family and home in the literacy development of children from low-income backgrounds. New Dir Child Adolesc Dev 2001;92:53-72.
5. Hutton JS, Horowitz-Kraus T, Mendelsohn AL, De-Witt T, Holland SK and the C-MIND Authorship Consortium. Listening to Stories. Home Reading Environment and Brain Activation in Preschool Children. Pediatrics DOI: 10.1542/peds. 2015-0359.
6. Needlman R, Silverstein M. Pediatric interventions to support reading aloud: how good is the evidence? J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2004;25(5):352-363.
TO ENCOURAGE KIDS' HEALTH, PEDIATRICIANS ADD READING TO ESSENTIAL CHECK-UP LIST
The nation's largest pediatricians group is now formally urging parents to read aloud to their children daily from infancy. The American Academy of Pediatrics says doing so stimulates early brain development and helps build key language, literacy and social skills.
You may wonder about the benefits of reading to your baby. An infant won't understand everything you're doing or why. But you wouldn't wait until your child could understand what you were saying before you started speaking to him or her, right? Nor would you bypass lullabies until your baby could carry a tune or wait until he or she could shake a rattle before you offered any toys.
Reading aloud to your baby is a wonderful shared activity you can continue for years to come — and it's an important form of stimulation. Reading aloud:
• teaches a baby about communication
• introduces concepts such as numbers, letters, colors, and shapes in a fun way
• builds listening, memory, and vocabulary skills
• gives babies information about the world around them Believe it or not, by the time babies reach their first birthday they will have learned all the sounds needed to speak their native language. The more stories you read aloud, the more words your child will be exposed to and the better he or she will be able to talk.
Hearing words helps to build a rich network of words in a baby's brain. Kids whose parents frequently talk/read to them know more words by age 2 than children who have not been read to. And kids who are read to during their early years are more likely to learn to read at the right time.
When you read, your child hears you using many different emotions and expressive sounds, which fosters social and emotional development. Reading also invites your baby to look, point, touch, and answer questions — all of which promote social development and thinking skills. And your baby improves language skills by imitating sounds, recognizing pictures, and learning words.
But perhaps the most important reason to read aloud is that it makes a connection between the things your baby loves the most — your voice and closeness to you — and books. Spending time reading to your baby shows that reading is a skill worth learning. And, if infants and children are read to often with joy, excitement, and closeness, they begin to associate books with happiness — and budding readers are created.
Listen. Different Ages, Different Stages
Young babies may not know what the pictures in a book mean, but they can focus on them, especially faces, bright colors, and contrasting patterns. When you read or sing lullabies and nursery rhymes, you can entertain and soothe your infant.
Between 4 and 6 months, your baby may begin to show more interest in books. He or she will grab and hold books, but will mouth, chew, and drop them as well. Choose sturdy vinyl or cloth books with bright colors and repetitive or rhyming text.
Between 6 and 12 months, your child is beginning to understand that pictures represent objects, and most likely will develop preferences for certain pictures, pages, or even entire stories. Your baby will respond while you read, grabbing for the book and making sounds, and by 12 months will turn pages (with some help from you), pat or start to point to objects on a page, and repeat your sounds.
When and How to Read
Here's a great thing about reading aloud: It doesn't take special skills or equipment, just you, your baby, and some books. Read aloud for a few minutes at a time, but do it often. Don't worry about finishing entire books — focus on pages that you and your baby enjoy.
Try to set aside time to read every day — perhaps before naptime and bedtime. In addition to the pleasure that cuddling your baby before bed gives both of you, you'll also be making life easier by establishing a routine. This will help to calm your baby and set expectations about when it's time to sleep.
It's also good to read at other points in the day. Choose times when your baby is dry, fed, and alert. Books also come in handy when you're stuck waiting, so have some in the diaper bag to fill time sitting at the doctor's office or standing in line at the grocery store. Here are some additional reading tips:
• Cuddling while you read helps your baby feel safe, warm, and connected to you.
• Read with expression, pitching your voice higher or lower where it's appropriate or using different voices for different characters.
• Don't worry about following the text exactly. Stop once in a while and ask questions or make comments on the pictures or text. («Where's the kitty? There he is! What a cute black kitty.») Your child might not be able to respond yet, but this lays the groundwork for doing so later on.
CO H
to
H
o
CN
o
o
se <
5
Q.
<
e
K
o
UJ T
s
Q.
S
s
LU
175
£
<
(0 fL
£ LLI
2
IS ^
IS
s
a
o
H
IB S
• Sing nursery rhymes, make funny animal sounds, or bounce your baby on your knee — anything that shows that reading is fun.
• Babies love — and learn from — repetition, so don't be afraid of reading the same books over and over. When you do so, repeat the same emphasis each time as you would with a familiar song.
• As your baby gets older, encourage him or her to touch the book or hold sturdier vinyl, cloth, or board books. You don't want to encourage chewing on books, but by putting them in his or her mouth, your baby is learning about them, finding out how books feel and taste — and discovering that they're not edible!
• Listen
• What to Read
• Books for babies should have simple, repetitive text and clear pictures. During the first few months of life, your child just likes to hear your voice, so you can read almost anything, especially books with a sing-song or rhyming text. As your baby gets more interested in looking at things, choose books with simple pictures against solid backgrounds.
• Once your baby begins to grab, you can read vinyl or cloth books that have faces, bright colors, and shapes. When your baby begins to respond to what's inside of books, add board books with pictures of babies or familiar objects like toys. When your child begins to do things like sit up in the bathtub or eat finger foods, find simple stories about daily routines like bedtime or bath time. When your child starts talking, choose books that invite babies to repeat simple words or phrases.
• Books with mirrors and different textures (crinkly, soft, scratchy) are also great for this age group, as are fold-out books that can be propped up, or books with flaps that open for a surprise. Board books make page turning easier for infants and vinyl or cloth books can go everywhere — even the tub. Babies of any age like photo albums with pictures of people they know and love. And every baby should have a collection of nursery rhymes!
• One of the best ways you can ensure that your little one grows up to be a reader is to have books around your house. When your baby is old enough to crawl over to a basket of toys and pick one out, make sure some books are included in the mix.
• In addition to the books you own, take advantage of those you can borrow from the library. Many libraries have story time just for babies, too. Don't forget to pick up a book for yourself while you're there. Reading for pleasure is another way you can be your baby's reading role model.
• Reviewed by: Carol A. Quick, Ed D. May 2013
During the first weeks of life your newborn may seem to do little more than eat, sleep, cry, and generate dirty diapers. But in reality, all senses are functioning as your infant takes in the sights, sounds, and smells of this new world.
It's hard for us to know exactly what a newborn is feeling — but if you pay close attention to your baby's responses to light, noise, and touch, you can see complex senses coming alive.
Sight
Your newborn can see best at a distance of only 8 to 12 inches, and focus when gazing up from the arms of mom or dad. Your newborn can see things farther away, but it is harder to focus on distant objects. Newborns are very sensitive to bright light and are more likely to open their eyes in low light.
After human faces, bright colors, contrasting patterns, and movement are the things a newborn likes to look at
best. Black-and-white pictures or toys will attract and keep your baby's interest far longer than objects or pictures with lots of similar colors. Even a crude line drawing of two eyes, a nose, and a mouth may keep your infant's attention if held close within range.
Your baby, when quiet and alert, should be able to follow the slow movement of your face or an interesting object.
Although your baby's sight is functioning, it still needs some fine tuning, especially when it comes to focusing far off. Your baby's eyes may even seem to cross or diverge (go «walleyed») briefly. This is normal, and your newborn's eye muscles will strengthen and mature during the next few months.
Give your infant lots of interesting sights to look at. Introduce new objects to keep your baby's interest, but don't overdo it. And don't forget to move your infant around a bit during the day to provide a needed change of scenery.
Hearing
Most newborns have a hearing screening before being discharged from the hospital (most states require this). If your baby didn't have it, or was born at home or a birthing center, it's important to have a hearing screening within the first month of life. Most kids born with a hearing loss can be diagnosed through a hearing screening.
Genetics, infections, trauma, and damaging noise levels may result in a hearing problem so it's important to have kids' hearing evaluated regularly as they get older. Even if your child passed the newborn hearing screen, talk to your doctor if you have concerns about your baby's hearing.
Your newborn has been hearing sounds since way back in the womb. Mother's heartbeat, the gurgles of her digestive system, and even the external sounds of her voice and the voices of other family members were part of a baby's world before birth.
Once your baby is born, the sounds of the outside world come in loud and clear. Your baby may startle at the unexpected bark of a dog nearby or seem soothed by the gentle whirring of the clothes dryer or the hum of the vacuum cleaner.
Try to pay attention to how your newborn responds to your voice. Human voices, especially Mom's and Dad's, are a baby's favorite «music.» Your infant already knows that this is where food, warmth, and touch come from. If your infant is crying in the bassinet, see how quickly your approaching voice quiets him or her down. See how closely your baby listens when you are talking in loving tones.
Your infant may not yet coordinate looking and listening, but even while staring into the distance, your little one is probably paying close attention to your voice when you speak.
Taste and Smell
Taste and smell are the two most closely related of the senses. Research shows that new babies prefer sweet tastes from birth and will choose to suck on bottles of sweetened water but will turn away or cry if given something bitter or sour to taste. Likewise, newborns will turn toward smells they prefer and turn away from unpleasant odors.
Though sweetness is preferred, taste preferences will continue to develop during the first year of life. For now, breast milk or formula will satisfy your newborn completely!
Touch
As it is to most humans, touch is extremely important to a newborn. Through touch, babies learn a lot about surroundings. At first, your baby is looking only for comfort. Having come from a warm and enveloping fluid before birth, babies are faced with feeling cold for the first time, brushing up
176
against the hardness of the crib, or feeling the stiff edge of a seam inside clothes.
Babies look to parents to provide the soft touches: silky blankets, comforting hugs, and loving caresses. With almost every touch a newborn is learning about life, so provide lots of tender kisses and your infant will find the world is a soothing place to be.
Should I Be Concerned?
If you just want a little reassurance that your baby's senses are working well, you can do some unscientific testing for yourself. When quiet and alert without other distractions, will your baby focus and follow your face or favorite toy?
If your baby's eyes seem to cross more than just briefly, be sure to tell your doctor. In some instances, medical cor-
rection may be required. Also tell the doctor if your baby's eyes appear cloudy or filmy, or if they appear to wander in circles as they attempt to focus.
Most newborns will startle if surprised by a loud noise nearby. Other ways to rest assured your baby is hearing well: Does your baby calm down when he or she hears your voice. Does your baby turn to the sound of a rattle? Does your baby respond to soft lullabies or other music? Do sounds made out of sight capture your baby's attention?
If you have any concerns about your newborn's ability to see or hear, talk to your doctor. Even newborns can be tested using sophisticated equipment, if necessary. The sooner a potential problem is caught, the better it can be treated.
Reviewed by: Mary L. Gavin, MD September 2011
STARTING THE DEBATE ON THE ROLE OF CHILDREN IN PHILOSOPHY
Eike Brock, Michael Thomas, Jochen Ehrich, Juergen Manemann
Introduction
Curiosity, imagination, fantasy, and continuous questioning: the child seems to be a natural philosopher until the age of eight to ten years, when the initial spirit of inquiry mysteriously seems to fade. What happens to them?
Innovative ideas, dreams and endless speculations: adolescents and young people start creating and planning their own new world. Have they reached the level of becoming experienced philosophers?
Rational decisions, pragmatism, disillusions, lack of time for thinking, and poisonous competition seem to rule the life of adults. Has the adult world missed the chance to practice philosophy and more importantly to understand the child as a philosopher?
Philosophical Practice and Clinical Philosophy
Gareth Matthews takes up these concerns in Philosophy and the young Child. Trying to understand a philosophy that represents the range and depth of children's inquisitive minds, he explores both how children think and how adults think about them: "Adults discourage children from asking philosophical questions, first by being patronizing to them and then by directing their inquiring minds towards more 'useful' questions. Most adults aren't themselves interested in philosophical questions. They may be threatened by some of them. Moreover, it doesn't occur to most adults that there are questions that a child can ask that they can't provide a definitive answer to and that aren't answered in a standard dictionary or encyclopaedia either."
For Matthews, the impoverishment of the philosophical thinking of children and adolescents is regrettable insofar as it allows the potential for critical and creative thinking to fall by the wayside. This in itself would already be bad enough, but in the course of aforementioned impoverishment, further essential knowledge that philosophy offers to each single being is lost. The education of the practical ability to react rationally to critical developments in life and the application of the therapeutic potential of philosophy will be neglected. In the Socratic tradition, the central
concern of philosophy is the education "of a single being to develop the ability to react to the world"; besides this, according to Socratic-Platonic self-understanding, concern for the soul is part of its main scope. Thus, philosophy aims at the health of the soul. Sadly, in the process of its academic professionalization, the therapeutic dimension of philosophy has faded increasingly into the background. The rise of Philosophical Practices outside of universities beginning in 1980 was a reaction to this trend. In Philosophical Practice, particularly in Philosophical Counseling, in the conversation between the philosophical practitioner and his or her client, the focus is not only on the primal philosophical question, the question concerning the good life. A special challenge is certainly constituted by the problem of how you can live a good life even under difficult conditions. As a basic experience of life, which, at the same time, causes its troublesomeness, illness is an important topic of the Philosophical Practice. In Clinical Philosophy, a synthesis of philosophy and medicine finally takes place. The clinical philosopher Martin Poltrum advocates the employment of philosophers in clinics: "What would such a philosopher do? On the one hand he would be a contact person for patients who have a current metaphysical need caused by illness, sorrow, death, and other borderline situations, and are pressed by questions which are discussed traditionally in philosophy, and on the other hand he would be the counselor for the medical staff for medical, psychotherapeutic and care ethical problems. An additional task of the clinical philosopher would be the institutionalization of lectures about the art of living [...] because especially in hospitals there is an increased interest in knowledge of life caused by the situation of being ill." This approach is worthy of applause. However, it doesn't consider the possibility of a specialized clinical philosopher for ill children and adolescents. The field of work for such a philosopher would be quite different to the one described above. Among other tasks, this philosopher would not only advise the medical staff and the patients but also the parents of the patients. Considering the fact that children can, as mentioned above,
CO H
to
H
o
CN
o
o
se <
S
CL <
e
B
o
LU T S CL
S
s
q
LU
177
