Two-and-a-half year old Mira couldn't be getting a better start for life as a reader.
She can already name most of the letters of the alphabet.
Alright, and then finally A, where's the A?
When it's time to become a reader, she'll have less to learn because of the head start
her parents are giving her.
Mira.
Yeah, good job. Give me a high five.
Look Mira, melons. M for melons and M for Mira! Look we have melons in our list.
Mira's mother does what reading researchers recommend: she finds opportunities to point
out print and how it's used.
Look Mira, C for cucumber, P for peppers.
Mira is learning that signs are different from shopping lists, which are different from
stories.
Mira is also discovering that all of these kinds of writing are made up of words which
are in turn are made up of letters.
C for cauliflower, M for mushrooms$#133;
When Mira starts learning to read, she'll already know a lot about print, much more
than she knows about self-control.
I want some of this.
Mira is getting such a rich exposure to books and print, it's clear she can't wait to read
on her own. In fact, like many children, Mira pretends to read.
Her play reading reveals that she already knows how books work. This knowledge comes
from watching her parents read to her. And that's something they do every day.
Every evening, after dinner, Mira's parents switch off the phone and television for reading
time. It's Mira's favorite part of the day.
Eat a good breakfast and don't forget to wash to dishes.
More is going on here than meets the eye.
From her mother's moving finger, Mira learns that the print tells her mother what to say--she
doesn't just make up a story based on the pictures.
The details that Mira and her two-month-old brother Vijay are picking up are certainly
important. But the most vital lesson this evening may be the simplest: reading is a
pleasure.
Why is he going…
His mommy and daddy want him to get his little brother.
Phyllis Hunter: The single most important thing that a parent can do to help a child
learn to read is to transmit a love of reading to their children. Let them see you reading
as a parent. Let them see that you enjoy and love print. And I say this to parents even
if you're not a reader yourself you can still communicate to your children that books matter.
Vijay can't yet follow the twists and turns of the plot, but he is paying attention to
his mother's voice, tuning his brain to the elementary speech sounds that make up English.
He's already laying the foundations for becoming a reader.
…and we'll be home soon.
[foreign languages]
The human voice can produce at least 150 different speech sounds or phonames.
[foreign language]
English uses only forty or so of these sounds.
[foreign language]