Read Stories With Specific Character Names to Develop Babies’ Brains
Most of us know that reading to babies is very good: it has to do with speech and cognitive development , it helps to strengthen the bond between parents and children, and gives us a welcome scenario when we try to use our recommended 30,000 words a day without Had to play the music again Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme. But for optimal benefit, it may not be enough to simply grab any board or Thai takeaway menu and start babbling words. The type of book you read can make a big difference, according to new research.
The University of Florida Brain, Cognition and Development Laboratory found that reading books that mention different characters and objects may be more beneficial for brain development than books that refer to characters and objects in general (“Look at all these animals! “). Laboratory director Lisa S. Scott, whose team recorded the natural electricity in babies’ brains as they read different books, explained the results in The Conversation :
In our studies, my colleagues and I followed babies during the second six months of life. We found that when parents showed babies books with faces or objects that were named individually, they learned more, generalized the knowledge to new situations, and displayed more specialized brain responses . This contrasts with books without labels, or books with the same overall label under each image in the book. Early learning in infancy has also been associated with benefits four years later in childhood .
An example of a story with individual names versus a story that refers to the object as a whole.
Fortunately, there are many children’s books with character names, including all the classic fairy tales (eg Jack and Jill, Little Miss Muffet, Peter Rabbit). And if they are not in your child’s favorite book, that’s okay too. As Scott writes, “My own daughter loved the books about Pat the rabbit , as well as stories about animals such as Dear Zoo . If the names weren’t in the book, we just made them up. “
Read the right books at the right time for your child’s brain to benefit | Talk