How Reading for Infant Children Promotes Language Development

Abstract

In recent decades, there has been increasing emphasis placed on the impacts that reading to infant children can have on their minds, and the ability to develop language skills from an early age. This paper provides research and studies that have singled-out the specific benefits that reading can have for infant children, and the extent to which it can help them in not only language development, but also the overall knowledge and learning comprehension. In outlining the reading, writing, and socio-emotional advancement that is seen in those children who had parents reading to them on a consistent basis, it becomes apparent that conducting these activities with young children can set them up for significant success upon entering their schooling. It was found, by numerous accounts, that the more frequent shared reading occurred, and the methods that were undertaken when conducting these techniques, can have vastly beneficial impacts for the young children, and allow them a better opportunity to prosper in academics, and overall oral communication.

In analyzing the developmental tendencies of infants and children, there have been a multitude of studies done regarding the most effective child-rearing methodologies. In doing so, this research has covered topics from practices to undertake in order to improve cognitive or motor capabilities, as well as how to ensure optimal development in terms of learning and speech. Amongst one of the most useful and effective methods that has been taken into consideration, specifically in regards to the language development of a child, is that of parents reading to their children from time of infancy and into early adolescence. An array of research has been conducted which reaffirms the fact that reading to infants can have strong and positive outcomes, providing insight into the specific benefits that reading has on the child’s mind, and how it will impact their capabilities in the future. In analyzing the benefits of early-childhood reading, it becomes evident that parents should read to their infant children on a daily basis, due to the fact that early exposure to language and speech, ultimately leads to beneficial outcomes on language development as a whole.

There are various reasons why parent-child reading leads to more positive outcomes in overall language development of the adolescent, especially considering the early exposure that they receive as a result of it. In doing so, studies have found that shared book-reading can allow children to better recognize letters in their early adolescence, as well as understanding the differences between print writing, how to hold a book, and an overall knowledge of how a book functions in the first place (Duursma, Augustyn, & Zuckerman, 2008), all of which contribute to the acquisition of overall language skills. Early distinction between print and pictures leads to earlier understanding of syntax and grammar, and the recognition of alphabetic letters also increases the likelihood of earlier language development. As children are more exposed to the alphabet in early adolescence, and the combination of the different letters to create in numerous words, this exposes the child to a great deal of new and diverse vocabulary from the onset. By conducting shared book-reading with their children, parents are stimulating the minds of their infants and young children, opening up their minds to a greater array of vocabulary, thus almost immediately improving their language development skillsets. By understanding the meanings of new words from early on, they are given a headstart in identifying new words, while children who may have not been read to are just beginning to discover some of this new vocabulary. One study that promotes the practice of shared book-reading between parents and children found that, the books read to children contain 50% rarer words than what is seen on some of the most popular television shows, or even the words that are used in conversations between college students. In doing so, shared book-reading ultimately stimulates the verbal interaction amongst children and parents, and fosters an increased and faster level of language development. (Duursma, Augustyn, & Zuckerman, 2008) Being exposed to a higher level, and greater array, of vocabulary from early infancy and throughout childhood, thus, fosters greater ability to develop understanding and implementation of more words, and ultimately improving the language developmental capabilities significantly.

In analyzing the benefits of reading to infants, and the ways that shared reading habits can help ensure the proper understanding and comprehending of language upon the proper age, it is clear that regular reading habits provide a basis by which the child will better pick up on language in their following years. Not only does it allow for an easier means by which the infant can grasp knowledge of the language, but also allows them to make connections between spoken language and reading, providing a solid foundation by which the infant will know the importance of regular reading patterns and habits, thus promoting the language acquisition to an even greater extent. Perhaps one major reason that infant children are better able to understand language through shared-reading is the fact that parents engage to a greater extent with a child, broadening their perspective of language in general, and prompting them to think out-of-the-box from such an early age. In doing so, by studying the outcomes of various mother-child interactions in regards to book reading, it was found that label-eliciting styles that correlate with expressive language, point-eliciting styles which correlate with a more receptive vocabulary and comprehension, as well as an informative style of imitative vocabulary found that infants benefit from all three of these components. Thus, by providing a variety of methods to early infantile reading, and by ensuring a diverse strategy of exposing infants to these capabilities, can foster greater language development within the child. (Karrass, 2015) When reviewing the aforementioned claims of shared reading, and the ways that parent-infant reading can greatly promote the onset of language capabilities, it becomes apparent why infant children often benefit so significantly from this activity. In regards to the information-giving style related to imitative vocabulary, the infant is already beginning to learn how to mimic the sounds that the mother is making to produce comprehensive words that exist in the language, thus getting a headstart on other children who may not have had the activity shared between them and their parents. Learning to mimic the words and sounds that occurs during shared reading, is known as phonological awareness, which refers to the ability to manipulate and emulate various sounds of oral language, and essentially mimic it, in order for the infant to essentially learn the word. In doing so, this awareness is a major part of understanding and developing the language that is spoken, and learning to speak from an earlier age.

Shared reading comes into significance, especially when analyzing the importance of joint attention in regards to parent-child relationships, and how it impacts overall development of an infant in their later adolescence. Joint attention refers to the shared focus that is shared between two individuals, and therefore targets the focus and thought-processes of two individuals towards a single subject or object. Joint attention has been found to be important in the development of children due to the fact that it allows the infant, which still is learning at very fast speeds, to be able to allocate their attention and focus towards a specific subject, and therefore learn from that experience. When doing so, children are better able to grasp an understanding and knowledge for the subject in question, thus bringing into perspective the beneficial impacts of shared reading among parents and children. In doing so, research provides insight into how necessary it is for the advancement of infants to be read to, claiming that joint attention in regards to book-reading is an excellent way to ensure language development, while simultaneously exposing children to socio-emotional engagement, understanding gestures, and verbal labelling in systems and settings that are more structured and proper. (Farrant, 2012) Socio-emotional engagement is crucial for the proper upbringing of any infant child, in that it provides them an understanding of how the world around them functions, and the ways in which the world around them functions. This is greatly interrelated with the ideas of joint attention and shared book reading, in that the picture books allow not only a better grasp of the objects and subjects in their surroundings, but simultaneously works towards developing their language capabilities. The aforementioned gestures and verbal labeling on behalf of the parents, thus, allows the infant to correlate words, sounds, and map them to the match the concepts and thoughts in the world. However, the same studies point to the fact that those children that grew up with low levels of joint attention or shared book-reading, led to a lesser developed vocabulary, and comprehension and development of language. In doing so, results of the research shows that the less exposure to joint attention that a child receives, the more likely they are to have language reception and comprehension problems upon entering into school. Specifically so, 70% of these children who are not experiencing sufficient levels of joint attention develop these language deficiency problems, and therefore provides insight into the inherent importance of shared reading between infants and parents. Furthermore, the ability to better ascertain and assess pictures and books, has been shown to be positively correlated to language development, greatly increasing the likelihood of advanced language comprehension at an earlier age.

Perhaps one of the strongest indicators in favor of parent-child book-reading, is that of the success in literacy, language, and overall learning benefits acquired by the child in their later years. In doing so, it has been proven through various forms of research that reading to children from their infancies, and into pre-school and early elementary levels, allows them to improve their educational capabilities, and score higher in categories such as reading and reading comprehension. Specifically so, one study divided a group of elementary school students into ‘early’, ‘on-time’, and ‘late’ talkers, in order to see the impacts of early shared reading. They found that when they measured the standardized criteria against each group of students, that the early talkers had far higher levels of performance in regards to reading, spelling, and language, than any of the other two groups. (Gilkerson, Richards, & Topping, 2015) These performance rates were able to be seen in the extent to which the language capabilities were heightened, as well as the child’s capability to read, write, and comprehend at more advanced rates than their counterpart students. The significance of these studies provides insight into the long-term benefits that are provided in shared book-reading activities, in that children are exposed to advanced information and subjects from their early adolescence. Additionally, it is interesting to note how these activities also lead to more positive results in the academic performance of students that are part of the lower socio-economic status in society. In doing so, it is known that children growing up in poor areas and under financially unstable households tend to place lesser attention on the importance of their education for a variety of reasons. They are unable to put their optimal focus towards their studies, and, generally, the schools that these children must attend do not have the same resources, material needs, and opportunities that other schools are given. As such, it provides for a doubly negative scenario, in which fewer children are adhering to the importance of educational attainment, and for a large part due to the fact that many are unable to properly learn from their schoolbooks. Recent studies on the impact of joint attention and child-parent reading on children who live in lower socio-economic statuses, found that having interventional book-reading occurring in a household can greatly improve the oral language and print knowledge of infants during the shared-reading practices. (Gilkerson, Richards & Topping, 2015) In doing so, it was found that these children who underwent child-parent reading showed significant advancement and increases in school performance, and performed much better on standardized tests. Thus, despite the fact that these poorer families are often wrought with issues impacting the education of their children, the shared book-reading can be seen as an effective method of improving the performance of young students. Specifically so, the study points to the oral language and print knowledge comprehension that the children attain after joint attention book-reading was applied, and shows that how impactful early exposure to books can have for infants. It allows them to better comprehend the world that they live in, understand how words and sentences are structured, which ultimately leads to their ability to better attain knowledge at a faster and more efficient rate. Therefore, it can be seen that the impact of parent-child book-reading, from early infancy and into the beginning stages of elementary, can greatly help improve the success rate of children, and further set them up for the goals they want to hold in the future. Studies similar to the aforementioned ones have suggested that those children who see the greatest scores and performance at school generally have an increased number of books in their households, as well as having parents that conduct shared-reading practices consistently from an early stage of adolescence. (Goldfeld, et. al., 2012) Thus, the importance of the parents and the overall environment cannot be understated when looking at how the relationship between parents, children, reading, and comprehension can play in later years. As mentioned above, those who were more frequently read to, as well as children who have a larger number of books in the household as a whole, tend to have better literacy and learning outcomes. The importance of this can be seen in the need for parents to provide the proper environment in which children can learn from joint attention book-reading, as well as being able to take that into their early schooling, and later in their lifetimes. By setting the stage early, parents can ensure that the impacts of shared reading are optimally impactful and beneficial.

In order to properly conduct the joint attention and shared reading between the child and parent, it is crucial for the parents to read to their children in a specific manner, especially in regards to the age that the adolescent may currently be in. As such, perhaps one of the biggest mistakes that parents make in terms of this activity, specifically tied to reading with their early infant children, is the fact that they draw too much attention towards the text and words that are on the page, and fail to engage the young child’s mind to think into broader topics. In doing so, they parents must draw the majority of attention and focus of their infant into the illustration and pictures in the book, as opposed to what is actually being written on the paper. Given that infants, clearly, are unable to understand the meaning of words, and even comprehend what a story and sentences really mean, parents must use the shared book-reading techniques in order to give exposure to the variety of objects and ideas that exist in the world around them. Perhaps one of the biggest reasons that parents have abstained from reading to their children from early on is due to the fact that the expected learning outcomes are far higher in the eyes of the parents, and often given that the activity is not conducted in the proper way. In doing so, it must be noted that there is a difference in the methods that parents undertake when reading to their children, and that these techniques need to both be implemented in order to ensure a positive outcome. By no means can the parent neglect one side of the reading techniques, due to the imbalance it may cause for the child, and thus not bringing the results that were potentially hoped for. As such, children are generally exposed to two forms of literacy in the household, including formal and informal literacy. In doing so, informal literacy holds the goal of relaying the message that is contained in the print, including the ideas and meaning of the story itself. On the other hand, formal literacy experiences focus more on the overlying components of the book, including the letters that are displayed, or the pictures that represent certain components of the book and overall learning. (Phillips, Norris & Anderson, 2008) Therefore, there is a clear line that is drawn between the ways that parents must take into consideration reading to their child, and must ensure to fully expand the knowledge of their children instead of merely focusing on the context. The same studies show that, for the most effective and positive impacts in terms of academic performance and language development in the later years, parents must first conduct the informal literacy reading, in order to bring attention to the individual components of the book. In doing so, by putting emphasis on the letters, illustrations, and other such smaller factors that make up the larger book all together, parents will be slowly exposing their young children to the wide array of ways that thought processes occur, and allow them to better structure this language and verbal understanding in a variety of means. In addition to at-home methods of joint attention in reading practices, young children can also be positively influenced in their early schooling, given that teachers are taught the proper ways of shared reading with the children. Specifically so, studies provide that teachers can undertake interactive read aloud activities, interactive writing, and shared writing and reading that will support the language development and overall performance of students in the classroom environment. (Honchell & Schulz, 2012) By doing this, teachers are placing the young children in an environment by which the literary and oral experiences are seen as expectations for the adolescents when they are older and into adult life. The teacher provides opportunities in which students can understand the ways that oral, written, and body language are all interrelated in one way or another, and that to be successful in their adulthood they must learn to interact properly. Teachers which are properly educated on this matter can also assist in fostering an environment of the child’s household, by connecting with the parents in order to provide methods and techniques to improve language acquisition, and overall literacy. As such, teachers can and should partner with parents to provide methodologies and techniques for shared reading, while simultaneously encouraging the practice, to show the extent to which this joint attention is crucial in order for the child to acquire proper reading skills. (Brannon & Dauksas, 2012) in that the teacher provides the resources, types of books, and ways that the parents should go about the joint reading exercises with their children. By doing so, not only does the child benefit from the impacts of the joint reading itself, but also form a stronger bond with the parents, and therefore fosters a more likely chance of being successful in their future endeavors.

Due to the importance of informal literacy when reading to infants and children, it is necessary to outline the extent to which visual and orthographic components of impact a children’s acquisition of language, and advancement in literacy in their later years. Given that the child is less likely to pay attention to the specific context of the story, it is prudent for parental figures to engage the adolescent towards understanding how words are put together, and the sounds that letters make, rather than what it specifically means. Furthermore, it is also necessary that they expose the child to illustrations in a way that captivates them, and allows them to take the idea further into other areas of thought, as opposed to abiding strictly by the story and messaging of the book the parent and child are reading. In doing so, studies have found that, around the 9 month mark, a child rapidly develops a capability to understand joint attention. In doing so, visual joint attention follows afterwards, which occurs between the 10 and 12 month mark. Furthermore, by undertaking active joint attention with an infant around the 12 month mark, these can all have enormously positive benefits for the infant who is experiencing these practices. (Sato, 2012) thus providing insight into how focusing on the illustrative factors can benefit infants. As children attain this ability of focusing on visual joint attention at such an early age, this is why informal literacy becomes so crucial in the development of language skills, as well as the other outcomes that parents actively seek. By pulling the attention away from a specific story, and expanding on what letters make which sounds, and what each illustration or picture represents inherently, it allows the infant’s mind to develop to a greater extent, due to the extended exposure.

Overall, in analyzing the impacts that are brought from joint attention child-parent reading upon infants and young children, it is apparent that the benefits are abundant, and that these activities can greatly help children in their later language development. In doing so, it must be remembered that the methods which are undertaken in shared reading must be specified to the age group of the child, taking into consideration the importance of exposure over context when reading a book. By properly conducting these practices, parents are giving their infant children an upper-hand in regards to their language development skills, but also in terms of the literacy, writing, reading and overall learning comprehension in school. With a wide variety of studies pointing towards vast benefits of joint attention reading between young children and their parents, it is crucial for parents to look into the right techniques of doing this task, and implement it from an early age as a means of seeing positive and successful results in the child’s schooling and socio-emotional comprehension in their adolescent and adult lives.