Helping Toddlers “Read”
Two-year-old Arianna can “read” her favorite Scooby-Do book. She sits down and recites the first three or four pages – that’s as far as she’s memorized the text – then hands it to me to read the rest. She believes that she’s reading and she “reads” with feeling, even inserting little asides (like “uh-oh” after a scary plot twist). This is great fun and really cute to watch. But it’s far more important than that.Look at what this toddler has achieved:How to hold a book and turn the pages at…See More
Two-year-old Arianna can “read” her favorite Scooby-Do book. She sits down and recites the first three or four pages – that’s as far as she’s memorized the text – then hands it to me to read the rest. She believes that she’s reading and she “reads” with feeling, even inserting little asides (like “uh-oh” after a scary plot twist). This is great fun and really cute to watch. But it’s far more important than that.
Remember back to your days as a third- or fourth-grader? Someone (maybe you?) was always picked last for kickball and was positioned to play in a spot where he couldn’t have much effect, one way or the other, on the team’s success. Then one day the teacher appointed this kid team captain and he had the power to choose who would play on his side and where they would be positioned in the outfield. At last the opportunity for some pay-back! Oh, the joys of power!
At an event this past weekend, I watched a mother follow her probably-three-year-old son around the hall, making suggestions for the boy’s behavior that were totally ignored. Obvious to any onlooker was the fact that the child was in charge. 
That commercial…. I’m sure you’ve seen it… Can it possibly be true?
It was, perhaps, the perfect experimental set-up: two identical sippy cups positioned side-by-side on the living room floor, one holding juice, the other milk. Nonetheless, I was startled by what happened next.