Keener parents unite! Do you secretly dream that your baby will be the one reading (or writing) War and Peace by Kindergarten? Shel Silverstein? Knuffle Bunny? Then this latest study is for you.
Apparently, kids learn to read faster from actual pictures of real life objects than silly cartoons (darn it!). In other words, young children are more responsive to iconicity in pictures than representational images. Move over Angelina Ballerina, it's the real people and places that will catapult my 2 year old to genius!
But before you or I rush out to make photo books for our babies, we should also remember that boosting children's literacy is relatively straightforward and hardly ever involves Kinko's. Read, read read to them every day. Even if they stare, drool, and can't yet roll over. They learn every second of every day. Like sponges, but with brains and cute outfits.
I have a friend whose daughter is not yet 6 and reads chapter books at the 6th grade level, flipping through them with the knowing smarts of a kid twice her age. You can bet her parents read to her in utero, but I suspect her huge learning capacity has more to do with genes than parental effort.
