Dance

By Julie Douglas

In her book Growing a Reader from Birth: Your Child's Path from Language to Literacy, Diane McGuinness describes the acquisition of language skills as a verbal dance between the parent and the child. What an awesome metaphor for what happens when a parent reads to a child!

If reading to children is a verbal dance, I like to think of READ from the START as dancing lessons. In the past two months I have had the opportunity to sit in on many READ from the START workshops. Whether in an urban early childhood center or in a small town library, similar scenes unfold. Parents enter the meeting space, and I see how their "body language" suggests different levels of comfort. Some are uncomfortable with reading. Others tell us that they aren't "teachers" and therefore feel they are not equipped to "teach their kids to read." Still others feel that reading is something their children will do once they go to school. Even parents who are already reading to their children wonder if they are "doing it right." It’s clear that many of the parents feel a little like wallflowers.

But then the music starts. In our case, the music is the book that we read together, joining in if we feel comfortable, or simply listening if we so choose. We are swept up in the lyricism of Goodnight Moon, or the humor of Mouse Count. We begin to feel the rhythm that is inherent in good picture books. We offer our own voice to the books by the inflection in our voices. We lean in and observe the illustrations. We relate our real life experiences to the stories we read. We share insights and ideas about conversations that the books might spark. Before we know it, we are dancing.

The Discussion Leader helps us learn new steps. "How can you make this story come alive when you read it to your child?" We practice some footwork. "What lesson might a child take away from this story?" We attempt a twirl or two. This is a safe place to try out some new moves, to express our thoughts.

Parents who return to the second session of RFTS share stories of how they and their child interacted with a book. A dad laughs and tells us that his child insisted on hearing the same story over and over again. A mom mentions that she shortened a story to match her child’s short attention span. Some parents tell about reciting nursery rhymes from their own youth. A young mother shares how she was able to articulate WHY it is important to read to her child. One grandmother talks about how she and her 4 year old grandson had a conversation about which books he liked and why he liked them.

The thread that runs through all of their stories is that they are in step with their children. The verbal dance between a parent and a child is enriched by participating in READ from the START. And in the end, the parent and child create a dance that is all their own.