K.I.S.S.S. Keep It Short, Simple, Sweet
Keep It Short and Simple, Sweet.
Always a good approach, often especially so when the task is large, long term, and complex. Increasing literacy rates and levels is just such a task. Whether in a given household or in a given population predicting the literacy level of a cohort of infants 10 years out is a long shot.
However, just as we can predictably increase the odds of good health for all in a population without a clean water supply and sewage system by providing pipelines, tools, machinery and information to transport and treat water, surely we can increase the odds of robust literacy for all by providing the best tools in the best place at the best time to plant the seeds of and nurture literacy: Books. From birth, at home.
It’s not rocket science. A child who enjoys many small, intimate moments sharing books with a adults & others as a normal part of their day, from birth onwards, has their odds stacked in favor of later strong literacy.
There’s no substitute for those earliest months: the brain activity and growth going on in every infant’s head is astounding. It is way beyond rocket-science level in complexity, speed, and power: synapses form and fire, connections are made at an astonishing rate.
Introducing words and images with the voices of care givers during infancy is a simple thing with incredibly complex and deep results. Providing many, many such moments of sharing words, images, and sounds in the earliest months is like preparing a garden bed: it creates a rich and fertile base for the roots, stems and flowering of later literacy.
Turning pages every day, back and forth, responding to an infant with words and babbling is what plants seeds if literacy in that bed. Actual reading of sentences and chapters is the fruit of countless moments of babbling, touching, turning, chewing, book-sharing time long before Kindergarten or 3rd grade reading tests.
Simple: look at the page. Make a sound. Touch and respond. Short: infant book sharing will be seconds to moments, toddlers longer, and so on. Sweet: light and fun, point and describe, make sounds, put it down when it’s not fun anymore. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
K.I.S.S.S. Keep It Simple, Short & Sweet. Repeat.
