NEWS

By APRIL SIMUN
UNC-CH News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- Twenty-year-old Drew Johnston scored a perfect 800 on the verbal section of the Scholastic Aptitude Test.

The secret? Johnston started learning about written language before he was a year old.

His mother believed it was important to read to her son before he could speak, and today’s experts agree with that motherly intuition.

"There is research that 6-month-old kids orient differently toward a book than toward a toy," said Dr. Dixie Spiegel, a professor in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Education. "The purpose of this exposure is to help their literacy emerge. It is important that people don’t wait. Reading to children well before they can read for themselves teaches them the concepts of print."

Such concepts include words and picture layout. Words run left to right, top to bottom and have spaces between them. Pictures explain and illustrate a story.

Although children who are read to probably won’t arrive at kindergarten their first day already able to read, they will be better prepared to start than other children, Spiegel said.

"They do tend to know their letters," she said. "They know more concepts. They’re more apt to know colors. They’re just interested in (reading).

"...The purpose isn’t to make a bunch of little gifted-and-talented kids. The purpose is to advance every child as far as they are able."

Parents who have been persuaded about the importance of reading stretch all the way from Drew Johnston’s mother in Belmont, N.C., to Chelsea Clinton’s on Pennsylvania Avenue.

First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton has endorsed parental reading as a key to early development and building parent-child relationships. So did former First Lady Barbara Bush.

"Bill and I did not know about brain cells or synapses or the newest discoveries in neuroscience," Clinton wrote in a 1997 Time magazine column. "Reading to Chelsea became a daily ritual because it’s what our own parents and grandparents had done with us and because we wanted to spend quiet time with her every day."

But the Clintons found time shared wasn’t the only reward.

"Today, thanks to advances in brain research, we know that reading with a child has intellectual, emotional and physical benefits that can enhance the child’s development," the First Lady wrote. "The intimacy of sharing books and stories strengthens the emotional bonds between a parent and child, helps a child learn words and concepts, and actually stimulates the growth of a baby’s brain."

Danita Mason-Hogans, former after-school program director at the Abundant Life Seeds of Sheba Cultural Center in Chapel Hill, said she noticed differences between children whose parents had read to them and those who had not.

"It’s more difficult for children when their parents don’t read for them," she said. "A lot of children don’t have the benefit of their parents reading to them. It makes all the difference."

The after-school program emphasizes reading comprehension activities with each child for 15 minutes as part of its daily routine, Mason-Hogans said.

But it is important for parents to read personally to their children, she said.

"It was the inflection in her voice," Mason-Hogans said of her own mother. "Only parents can bring that kind of energy to their children."

Black children need to be exposed to black characters in their reading, she said.

More books with themes relevant to black children were available in 1998 than in 1972, when the only such book Mason-Hogans could find in her kindergarten classroom featured a stereotypical Sambo character.

"It's not as difficult as it was," she said. "Now there is a wealth of books. We still need more to choose from. A lot of times cost is a problem for children getting books with African-American themes."

Cost, however, is not the only factor keeping parents from reading to their children. Many don’t realize that time spent reading together is important.

A 1996 San Diego State University study tracked parents who had not practiced good literacy habits with their children. When the parents received "high-intensity, community-based intervention designed to train," they improved their literacy habits by reading to their children, teaching them concepts and visiting libraries together, the study found.

M.J. Goodrum, director of children’s services at the Chapel Hill Public Library, said parents she saw visiting the library were usually highly concerned about their children’s literacy.

"Chapel Hill is a community where parents are very involved," she said. "What we see here is quite a few parents reading to their children. My tendency is to say it makes them more interested in reading."

Many public libraries, like Chapel Hill’s, offer programs to encourage parents and children reading together.

"We of course have story times," Goodrum said. "We highlight our picture books. We help parents pick out books."

The last Wednesday night of each month, parents and children enjoy pajama nights. Children wear pajamas, and parents and children sit together on blankets and read stories.

"Having parents attend – it’s just a good sharing time," Goodrum said.

Johnston, a sophomore psychology major at UNC-CH, said sharing time with his mother was just as important as his 800 SAT verbal score.

"My mom and I have a really close relationship," he said. "My mom loved to read. She enjoyed doing it, and we enjoyed doing it. It’s much more interactive than watching TV. You can talk and answer questions."

Those questions and conversations can spark interests and thoughts for a lifetime, Spiegel said.

"Parents have a very important role, not only in reading to their children, but also having their children see them read," she said. "Highly literate parents spontaneously understand that."

Contact: David Williamson, (919) 962-8596.