Author Dr. Robert Saul

Raising Young Citizens in the Age of Columbine

Books build brains…and relationships

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Pediatricians have long emphasized the importance of books.  Books are a tool that has multiple purposes.  Like a screwdriver, a wrench, a hammer, or a saw, books can fix, create, mold or manipulate words and pictures into a pattern that can enhance the early experiences of infants and children.  Some might question my analogy of the above tools of a handyman to books, but I am thoroughly convinced that books are a malleable medium that help us build and strengthen the neural connections of our children at any age. I still consider myself in that process now three-quarters of a century into life.

And what develops along with neural connections?  Relationships!1,2  Relationships and relational health are the keys to our well-being so let’s look at ways books can be promoted early on.

  • Reach Out and Read (ROR) – ROR is a national literacy program serving 4.8 million children yearly that is administered by pediatric doctors. During well child care visits, pediatricians demonstrate and emphasize the importance of books for the children.4 The evidence for the program is convincing.5  The program helps at many levels.
    • Families read together more often
    • Children have higher language (receptive and expressive) scores
    • Parents tend to read more often
    • Language development is improved
  • Dolly Parton Imagination Library (DPIL) – DPIL is dedicated to getting books into the hands of all children ages 0-5, every month, via partnerships with DPIL and community organizations.6 My community of Greenwood SC is actively involved and has extended its reach to over 40% of eligible children so far.  Perhaps the most exciting evidence is shown in the graph below.  Since the first DPIL children enrolled in Greenwood reached third grade, the percentage of children meeting third grade reading standards has increased and increased at a rate greater than that for SC children as a whole.

 

The promotion of books should not be exclusive domain of any one program.  We should be actively working to advance all avenues of access.

But the real challenge remains as to how to ignite the charm of reading and engagement in the process. I just read a passage in a book that had great suggestions.

I am reading (actually listening to) Theo of Golden by Allen Levi.7  I paused while listening to Chapter 32 as I realized that the main character, Theo, was totally committed to reading to a young child in a manner that added a mystical quality to the interaction.  That is what we should aspire to as parents, grandparents and caregivers.  Some suggested methods –

  • Use a bit of fanfare. Make it a dramatic reading with a big introduction
  • Vary your voice, raising and lowering the volume for effect to enhance the text
  • Change inflection and the rhythm or cadence
  • Celebrate punctuation, especially exclamation points
  • For older children
    • Take turns reading the lines
    • Offer strong praise for lines that are read well and repeat them as needed to emphasize how well the child is doing
    • Ask how many syllables are in a word and count them
    • Ask which letters are vowels and which ones are consonants
    • Play with the emphasis of syllables and how that changes the meaning (my mother always stressed that if I put the emPHAsis on the wrong sylLAble that folks won’t know what I was saying!)

Books do indeed build brains and at the same time establish relationships that are meaningful, relationships that strive to be safe, stable and nurturing.  Safe, stable, nurturing relationships (SSNRs) are the stuff of essential child development and provide a clear road map for parents  and caregivers of all ages.8

 

Building brains and relationships is a wonderful combination.  In the words of Allen Levi in Theo of Golden, reading books impart “the magic of story;” reading books explores “the wonder of words;” and reading books cultivates “the fertility of imagination.”  What a glorious fusion of words, art, love, and trust!

  1. https://mychildrenschildren.com/catch-relational-health-at-its-best/
  2. https://mychildrenschildren.com/relate-rupture-repair-repeat/
  3. https://mychildrenschildren.com/books-february-21-2025/
  4. https://reachoutandread.org
  5. https://reachoutandread.org/why-we-matter/the-evidence/
  6. https://imaginationlibrary.com
  7. Levi A. Theo of Golden. Atria Books; 2023. 384 pp.
  8. https://mychildrenschildren.com/ssnrs-and-mr-rogers/