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A study shows that picture books help children under 3 to better understand the real world.
January, 2007
We already knew that reading picture books to babies and young children promotes the habit of reading and helps them acquire language skills. But now, a study shows that children are able to reproduce complex actions after seeing them in a picture book. This huge capacity for imitating what appears in a picture book shows how important it is that the picture books we read our children present positive values and reflect our world without prejudice.
The researchers, Gabrielle Simcock from Queensland University (Australia) and Judy DeLoache from the University of Virginia (U.S.A.), worked with children ages 18 months olds, 24 months olds and 30 months olds. They made three groups. Two groups were read a picture book ilustrated with drawings (first group) or photographs (second group) showing how to build a simple rattle. After the book, the children were asked to build a similar rattle.
The third group of children was not read the picture book. They were just asked to build a rattle. Most children who had seen the book were able to build a rattle, while none of the children who had not seen the book could do it.
The study, published in november 2006 in Developmental Psychology, shows that very young children can learn and imitate actions from books. This not only means that picture books are a great tool to help our children develop language skills and understand the world, but also underlines how important it is that the books we read to our children show positive values and do not transmit any kind of stereotypes.
The goal of Topka is making books that reflect the world in all its diversity, eliminating steriotypes and paternalistic attitudes, and showing our differences in a natural way. More about Topka
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