Help When Help Is Sought

The show-off parent.

       Marked beginnings are made toward reading by some children even before entering kindergarten, usually by those who learn to talk early, and who have had an opportunity to enjoy stories in books. At the age of four, they may recognize letters, want to write O's or A's, copy their older brothers' and sisters' names, and learn to write their own names. Parents may wonder if it is right to help them when they ask, "How do you make a T?" A sensible plan is to offer the child help when he asks for it, and show him how to get fun out of his exploration. Give him a crayon rather than a hard pencil, and provide a large sheet of paper and a good surface on which to write. 

       It is very important that the observing parent doesn't become too proud over early signs of literacy. It is the parent, hoping he is guiding a budding genius, the one aiming to have his child read at four, who constitutes a threat to a child's security. The show-off parent is not only a bore to all of us, but is endangering his own child. Children must be accepted by their contemporaries, enjoying work and play with them, and they will not be accepted if they are forced by their parents to stand apart and think themselves smarter than their playmates.

       A child who is tutored by an overambitious parent may grow up thinking it is smart to be different, to be superior to his neighborhood and school fellows. Grave emotional problems too often result from his attitude-an attitude which so frequently begins with the child's perfectly normal urge to imitate those with whom he lives, who read and write. So the counsel is: help when help is sought, but don't exert pressure. Another suggestion: these interests with young children are sporadic; they wax and wane quickly. When a child loses interest in writing and looking at books, the best course is to accept it as normal behavior. Later on, he will come back with renewed eagerness to these experiences; he will want to read and write. We will find that although he may have forgotten some previously learned skills, he will soon, and happily, acquire others.

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Teaching Little Learners.

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