It is known that during the first six years of life children build the foundations to be competent readers, so specialists recommend that babies have contact with books very soon.
The Spanish Association of Primary Care Pediatrics (AEPap), on the occasion of International Book Day, recalled that promote the habit of reading from an early age it influences not only the reading ability but the integral development of the boy or girl.
Already from birth, contact with books promotes the so-called "popup reading", in several phases.
- Before the age of 2, emergent reading means the contact with the printed text, beginning by differentiating drawings and objects from the spellings, knowing that both are related to each other, and later beginning to know the structure of the stories told, which They contain beginning, development and end.
- On a cognitive-emotional level, emergent reading means approaching other realities and, although closely linked to the senses (sensory-motor stage), it is a transmitter of emotions (through voices, tone ...). Popup reading is also approach and familiarize yourself with a new recreational object which is the book, for which a magical moment of the day can be dedicated.
- After 2 years, the child is no longer prelinguistic, so this emergent reading is now directed towards the progress of language and enrichment of your vocabulary. With this, the foundations are formed for the further development of reading.
- When the child begins learning graphemes (some experts say it should be from 3 years) will begin, in turn, the interpretation that these small paths are the letters. From this moment a path of infinite possibilities for the development of the person opens.
- Even reading will become an individual, private act, in which the boy or girl enjoy the magical worlds of the readings and continue to develop as people from the books and by themselves.
In all this process remember that the example is essential, reading in front of the little ones and creating habits and familiar moments around a written text, which can be from stories, to recipes, toy catalogs, newspapers ... It is, after all, about familiarize them with the written paper.
