Mothers and fathers live with some anguish the advances in maturation and learning of the creatures. "He is six years old and still doesn't read", is a phrase repeated in family circles. The new pedagogies introduce new methods to digest literacy, and many families live with some bewilderment at not having a guide to know if the maturation process of the child is going well.
"Reading, for our brain, is a titanic work", explained in RAC1.cat Anna Forés, PhD in Philosophy and Educational Sciences, pedagogue and co-director of the master's degree in Neuroeducation at the UB. She has just published, with other authors, The benefits of reading aloud (Encyclopedia).
“We are made to speak, but not to read. We've only been reading for 4,000 years! To do so, we recycle parts of the brain related to sight, language, emotions… Age is important, to learn to read”, added Forés.
“It is crucial to be clear about the ideal age to read. If we force [the child] to do it before the brain is mature, what we will achieve is that, instead of reading for pleasure, this activity is associated with frustration and having a hard time. The benefits of reading are determined by the context in which we read, the moment in which we do it... The results can be very counterproductive if we associate it with a duty”, says Forés.
And what is the optimum age? This is just the question many families ask themselves. According to Forés, “the seven years would be the moment of proper maturation of the brain, in a neurotypical organ. Some are mature before, but it would be worrying if a boy or girl did not read at the age of seven”.
According to this specialist in neuroeducation, “in order for someone to be able to read, they first had to talk a lot at three or four years of age. [Children] have to talk and talk and talk, and to do that they need vocabulary. If I want to get a child to know how to read, they have to talk a lot, and have a vocabulary.
The current pace of life does not allow us, sometimes, to spend time talking, a fundamental activity for the development of creatures. “Sometimes we want them to read and we haven't left them space to speak. It's important to talk to creatures, and we don't do this much nowadays. How do we enrich the vocabulary? With many words, and creating spaces to be able to speak, at school, at home, everywhere," says the expert.
This article was originally published on RAC1
