ABSTRACT
There is a great deal involved in the process of reading that we adults take for granted. Very young children are picking up information about how to read long before they can manage the process for themselves. Every time toddlers sit on their parents’ laps to share books, they are getting the message that:
• a book is interesting and entertaining; • there is a ‘right way up’; • pages have to be turned in a particular order; • the marks on the page (the print) mean something, as well as the pictures; • the reader looks at the marks on the page, not the pictures, to read the story; • the story is always the same, no matter how many times it is read, and no matter who
is doing the reading. (If you have ever had to read the same favourite story for the umpteenth time at bedtime to your own child, and attempted to cheat by skipping a bit, you will know that even very young children notice when it is not exactly the same. My own son admonished me sternly to ‘Read the words’ whenever I tried this!)
When an adult or older brother or sister points to the words while they are reading to a younger child, they are learning that:
• you read the print, not the pictures, to tell the story; • the words are read from left to right; • when you have finished reading one line you have to go down to the next one and
move over to the other side of the page to read that one from left to right as well; • every word that you can hear is in the book, and is separated from the other words
by spaces.
