I now noticed there was a leap between my second and third paragraph. The connection is of course that I believe that reading to kids is beneficial to the development of abstract thought since you talk about what you’ve read while you’re reading: You go sort of meta and also highlight the difference between everyday language and that of the fairytale (different words, syntax (perhaps) and melody (when reading aloud) etc).

Also, in the part about Hart & Risley I should have said “seven additional things with regards to linguistic interaction”, since the one, most important thing was reading with the kids.

The advantage over tv is that the reader/listener needs to imagine and think. The advantage of reading in person over audiobooks is of course interaction. I think this is a very big advantage.

Abstract thinking (as in for example understanding that words are representations or understanding genres (timetable, letter, shopping list, fairytale…)) becomes increasingly important. Trouble with abstract thinking leads to difficulties understanding schoolbooks from about year 3 or 4 in school.

Kids also need to be socialized into revering the written word. They should be exposed to adults using writing and reading in all sorts of contexts.

(See for example Scollon & Scollon, -79, -81, -84)

It just struck me that geeks in the information age may be using computers too much. We should write letters, notes and shopping lists with pen and paper and involve the kids in these activities. We should read various kinds of things in forms other than on the computer screen. (edit: Not just when reading to them directly, but to show kids the joy of reading a book or a newspaper etc.) (Of course the computer should be in there among the various things we use for reading and writing.)

Hart & Risley (1995) identify seven things that parents who get successful school kids do: 1. “Commenting on whatever they were doing” 2. “(Use language to) create and sustain social closeness” 3. “…alternates between short simple labels and the mature language of adults.”, “… included the children in adult culture” 4. “Undertake the role of a receptive social partner” 5. “.. makes her interest clear by never commenting on the form or clarity of the child´s utterances” 6. “Involve the children in decisions!” 7. “They Passed Their Interactional Style On to the Next Generation”

Also, don’t use a pram where the baby faces away from the one pushing. Babies can’t make meaning of the visual input, since it takes a few seconds for them for example to recognize a face. Have the baby face you and interact with them. Interaction FTW.

edit: with regards to the the pram-rant, see Frith & Wolpert “The Neuroscience of Social Interaction: decoding, imitating and influencing the actions of others”.

(final edit I hope: I haven’t quite internalized the fact that one should plan ahead and write a draft when composing a long and clever piece of text like this one. That’s one thing school (apparently atleast in my case) often neglects. Kids should be taught that real writing isn’t a one-quick-sitting kind of thing, but that you plan and make a draft and later also come back to the text (after for example peer-review) and make it better. Oh, and happy christmas, if you’re into that kind of thing :-)