Read to Your Baby
On a cross-country flight a few days ago, a young couple sat in the aisle across from me with their young baby. I guessed that the child was about 3-4 months old, very young, with sparse blond hair and a cowlick in front that stood straight up. The dad kind of liked it, and would smooth it upwards every once in a while. The baby was a teeny bit fussy, but mostly sat and played and drank a bottle or nursed. The mom and dad took turns sitting next to the baby (who had the window seat).
Towards the end of the flight something unusual happened. Something I haven’t seen in a long time. The mother pulled out a book, a hardcover copy of Curious George stories. It wasn’t a board book, and I thought to myself, “hmmm, I wonder what will happen here.” I thought the baby might reach for the pages and tear them. The mom proceeded to read aloud to the baby in a soft voice. The baby, meanwhile, sat up on the dad’s lap and looked at the pictures. They were big and colorful, and there wasn’t a lot of text on the page. Every once in a while, the baby would reach for the pictures. I watched carefully to see if the baby was attending. The baby seemed intently focused.
It was clear from the way the baby watched the book, and the mom as she read, that this was a moment of delight and connection for them. The dad was engaged, too, as the humor of the story unfolded. In the one she was reading George rearranges the train schedule at a train station, with the inevitable ensuing mix-up. The man with the yellow hat arrived in time to rescue George and fix the problem.
What struck me was how young the baby was, and how engaged in the book. It was far more complex than the usual board books read to children of that age. I know that UC Berkeley psychologist Alison Gopnik has recently published a book about the intelligence and capabilities of the very young. This seemed like a living example of what she has discovered.
But another thing I realized was how rarely I have seen parents reading to their children in public lately. It used to be in the olden days, before portable dvd players, and Game Boys and DSL units etc. that children read or were read to on long trips, or they listened to books on tape.
What was clear to me from the interaction between the baby and the parents was that reading would always be associated with a pleasurable activity– a close, nurturing and loving experience. It wasn’t expensive or gimmicky, but it would lay the foundation for comfort with text, in all its forms, for the rest of the baby’s life.
What a gift!