Strategy three from: Baines, L. A. (2022). What's a parent to do? Roman & Littlefield.
In addition to conversations with adults, another important way that children learn new words is through inferring word meanings in context while reading. Reading builds strong brains and helps increase vocabularies, a gift that accompanies children throughout their lives. Indeed, larger vocabularies enable the possibility for understanding more written material, thereby continually increasing the child’s range of expression and linguistic power.
In general, the more a child reads, the larger a child’s vocabulary becomes. The “relationship between vocabulary and general intelligence is one of the most robust findings in the history of intelligence-testing.” Voracious readers continually extend their knowledge of words and sentences every time they read a new book, article, or story.
On the other hand, students typically do not encounter unfamiliar words while watching image-based media, such as films, television shows, or streamed video. Scripts for image-based media tend to feature simple words, and are usually written at a third-grade reading level or lower.
A few years ago, I was invited to participate in a training session sponsored by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (O.E.C.D.). The training was designed to alert the academic community to the enormous data sets available on children, their families, and schools throughout the world, including student test scores on the P.I.S.A. (Program for International Student Achievement), an assessment that measures the ability of 15-year-olds to use “knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges.” The massive OECD databases contained detailed information on homes, parents, schools, and students in 80 countries, including the United States.
I ran several statistical tests to determine which characteristics in the home environment correlated most strongly with high student achievement and discovered something quite startling.
In general, the more a child reads, the larger a child’s vocabulary becomes. The “relationship between vocabulary and general intelligence is one of the most robust findings in the history of intelligence-testing.” Voracious readers continually extend their knowledge of words and sentences every time they read a new book, article, or story.
On the other hand, students typically do not encounter unfamiliar words while watching image-based media, such as films, television shows, or streamed video. Scripts for image-based media tend to feature simple words, and are usually written at a third-grade reading level or lower.
A few years ago, I was invited to participate in a training session sponsored by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (O.E.C.D.). The training was designed to alert the academic community to the enormous data sets available on children, their families, and schools throughout the world, including student test scores on the P.I.S.A. (Program for International Student Achievement), an assessment that measures the ability of 15-year-olds to use “knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges.” The massive OECD databases contained detailed information on homes, parents, schools, and students in 80 countries, including the United States.
I ran several statistical tests to determine which characteristics in the home environment correlated most strongly with high student achievement and discovered something quite startling.
Having more books in the home had a stronger correlation to student achievement than any other single factor, including family income and parents’ level of education. The factor most strongly associated with high scores on all three tests--reading, problem solving, and mathematics—was the number of books at home. Across categories of race, gender, and nationality, the more books in the home, the higher a student’s level of achievement. Apparently, what author Roald Dahl wrote is true: “If you are going to get anywhere in life you have to read a lot of books.”
The parts of the brain associated with reading also control “thinking, learning, speech, emotions and planned muscle movements.” Reading has been shown to activate different regions of the brain, “including bilateral interior frontal, superior temporal, middle temporal, middle frontal, superior frontal, and postcentral gyri, as well as bilateral occipital cortex, inferior parietal lobules, thalami, and insulae.” In other words, many parts of the brain are activated when a child reads.
Much like lifting weights adds muscle to the body, neuroscientists have found that time spent reading makes parts of the brain physically larger. Conversely, these same regions of the brain may shrink or wither when children do not read.
A stimulating home environment includes, not only access to abundant print resources, but also plenty of play materials and toys. The mention of the word toys, might bring to mind branded, commercial products, such as Barbie, Disney-themed plush toys, or Star Wars action figures. However, toys could just as well be dead bugs, as in Theodore Roosevelt’s case (see Strategy 2), or a bunch of empty cardboard boxes, as described in the story at the end of this chapter.
Supplying the home with play materials and toys does not necessitate spending gobs of money. The goal is having a lively and interesting environment, not a collection of the latest offerings from corporate toy manufacturers. A seminal research study on play materials found that “the availability of toys and learning materials, the parent’s involvement and encouragement of the child, and the variety of experiences to which the child is exposed” are associated with higher intellect beginning at age two. In contrast, “an inadequate or insufficient environmental stimulation is a major contributing factor of the developmental lag in…brain maturation.”
The mathematical equation for a healthy brain is as follows:
A safe and interesting home + a parent’s encouragement + a home full of toys + a home full of books = Healthy brain
A responsive school can help counteract the negative effects of a home environment that might score poorly on the HOME assessment. However, children who live in dysfunctional homes and attend ineffective, uncaring schools face a “double disadvantage” with regard to brain development. In contrast, a “double advantage,” meaning a safe, stimulating home environment and a caring, effective school, is the preferred scenario.
Story
One of the universities where I worked offered an on-campus Child Development Center for children, aged 3-4. The Center was widely known as the absolute best place within 100 miles for child care for young children and it received a grant to build “the world’s greatest playground” on the campus. On the day that the world’s greatest playground was to debut, hundreds of parents and their children showed up for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. However, after the ribbon was cut and the speeches were made, I noticed very few children were playing on the new, expensive playground. Where did they go?
They were playing in the grassy area next to the playground, among the mountain of discarded cardboard boxes that were used to transport the playground equipment.
Play is essential to a young child’s healthy development and is positively associated with increased creativity, cooperation, openness, and intelligence. “Play is by its very nature educational. And it should be pleasurable. When the fun goes out of play, most often so does the learning.”
The parts of the brain associated with reading also control “thinking, learning, speech, emotions and planned muscle movements.” Reading has been shown to activate different regions of the brain, “including bilateral interior frontal, superior temporal, middle temporal, middle frontal, superior frontal, and postcentral gyri, as well as bilateral occipital cortex, inferior parietal lobules, thalami, and insulae.” In other words, many parts of the brain are activated when a child reads.
Much like lifting weights adds muscle to the body, neuroscientists have found that time spent reading makes parts of the brain physically larger. Conversely, these same regions of the brain may shrink or wither when children do not read.
A stimulating home environment includes, not only access to abundant print resources, but also plenty of play materials and toys. The mention of the word toys, might bring to mind branded, commercial products, such as Barbie, Disney-themed plush toys, or Star Wars action figures. However, toys could just as well be dead bugs, as in Theodore Roosevelt’s case (see Strategy 2), or a bunch of empty cardboard boxes, as described in the story at the end of this chapter.
Supplying the home with play materials and toys does not necessitate spending gobs of money. The goal is having a lively and interesting environment, not a collection of the latest offerings from corporate toy manufacturers. A seminal research study on play materials found that “the availability of toys and learning materials, the parent’s involvement and encouragement of the child, and the variety of experiences to which the child is exposed” are associated with higher intellect beginning at age two. In contrast, “an inadequate or insufficient environmental stimulation is a major contributing factor of the developmental lag in…brain maturation.”
The mathematical equation for a healthy brain is as follows:
A safe and interesting home + a parent’s encouragement + a home full of toys + a home full of books = Healthy brain
A responsive school can help counteract the negative effects of a home environment that might score poorly on the HOME assessment. However, children who live in dysfunctional homes and attend ineffective, uncaring schools face a “double disadvantage” with regard to brain development. In contrast, a “double advantage,” meaning a safe, stimulating home environment and a caring, effective school, is the preferred scenario.
Story
One of the universities where I worked offered an on-campus Child Development Center for children, aged 3-4. The Center was widely known as the absolute best place within 100 miles for child care for young children and it received a grant to build “the world’s greatest playground” on the campus. On the day that the world’s greatest playground was to debut, hundreds of parents and their children showed up for the ribbon-cutting ceremony. However, after the ribbon was cut and the speeches were made, I noticed very few children were playing on the new, expensive playground. Where did they go?
They were playing in the grassy area next to the playground, among the mountain of discarded cardboard boxes that were used to transport the playground equipment.
Play is essential to a young child’s healthy development and is positively associated with increased creativity, cooperation, openness, and intelligence. “Play is by its very nature educational. And it should be pleasurable. When the fun goes out of play, most often so does the learning.”