Many mothers and fathers experience with some anguish the advances in maturation and learning of the creatures. “She 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 task”, explained Anna Forés, PhD in Philosophy and Educational Sciences, pedagogue and co-director of the Master’s in Neuroeducació at the UB in RAC1.cat. She has just published, with other authors, The benefits of reading aloud (Encyclopedia).
“We are made to speak, but not to read. We have 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,” he added.
“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 bad time for a while. 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,” he says.
And what is the optimum age? This is just the question many families ask themselves. According to Forés, “the age of seven would be the moment of proper maturation of the brain, in a neurotypical organ. Some are mature before, but it would be worrisome if a boy or girl did not read when they were seven years old.
According to this specialist in neuroeducation, “for someone to be able to read, they first had to talk a lot at the age of three or four. [Children] have to talk, talk and talk, and to do that they need vocabulary. If I want to get a child to know how to read, you 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 talk. It’s important to talk with children, and we don’t do this much nowadays. How do we enrich vocabulary? With lots of words, and creating spaces to talk, in school, at home, everywhere,” says the expert.
