Just before the end of the 20th century it was interesting for us to read books - we read ourselves, went to libraries and read to children at night. It spoke about the culture of erudition and intellect of a person. The development of digital technology in many ways changed our lifestyle and habits. Russia ceased to be the most reading country, and most of our citizens haven’t opened a book for year.
Today, in the role of conventional paper books are the tablets, computers, television and other electronic gadgets. We watch movies and listen to audiobooks. We distanced ourselves and alienated our children from ourselves. Reading fairy tales we replaced by cartoons of questionable content, and sometimes not at all relevant to children's age, for some reason, decided that in the modern world everything has to be modern, including parenting and tools used in the process.
The development of literacy begins with the formation in the womb and the birth of the child. Experts in child development say that children learn to read long before they start talking and forming words in the sentence. In the preschool years, children learn the skills and knowledge that become the basis for their further development. And reading is the best way.
"The theory of mind", or in other words, understanding the thoughts, opinions and desires of others which may differ from their own, becomes available for children at the age of 3-5 years. At the same age a child begins to understand what do the characters of books think and feel. The most effective way is joint reading with their parents. Spending time together has a positive effect on the emotional state of the baby.
It is recommended to read not only at bedtime, but as often as possible. It goes without saying that of great importance will be the quality of selected books, and what will be loaded into the consciousness of the child. Earlier, our parents read to us the good old fairy tales which are unjustly forgotten today. But they necessary for a child as air. They give foundation for the imagination and speech development. Moreover, it is also a program of action, a model of building a life, ways of responding to life situations. Any fairy tale - good and bad, is useful, and our task is to clarify at the moment of reading, which features of characters a child should "try on" to himself.
Many years of life needs a person in order to see the whole palette of human’s emotions and actions. The tale helps to cognize all of this already in the first years of life - what is good and bad, what is nobility and baseness. And even if in a fairy tale protagonist performs negative actions, it is necessary to choose the fairy tale, where he re-educates and fairy tale has a happy-end, where the hero wins with the help of mind, courage, and not by meanness. Also every fairy tale should be discussed, you should evaluate the actions of the heroes, ask questions about the reading, ask your child to express judgments about the characters and plot. Allow your child to imagine and dream. Allow him to be able to find a grain of wisdom and morality laid in the tale of our ancestors.
"Albert Einstein once was asked how we can make our children smarter. His answer was simple and wise. If you want your children to be smart, he said, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales. "
The need for reading books is not only in children but also in adults. As well as what literature to choose, it should have a positive effect on the development of human intelligence. Oxford scientists’ research has shown that reading brings benefits to the body as much as sports exercises, since in the process of reading person exercises the whole brain. Depending on the method of reading (reading for pleasure or analyzing the text), the human body uses different mechanisms to train the cognitive abilities of the brain.
It was found that while transition from reading for pleasure to the critical perception of information, there is a sharp change of the nervous activity and the character of blood circulation starts in the human brain. Wherein each type of neurological capacity bears its favor to the human brain, being a kind of exercise for it. While reading the blood flows to those regions of the brain that are outside the zones which are responsible for the management, and comes to zones related to the ability to learn and concentrate.
Thus, scientists have shown that while reading the effect of "dipping" in the book is turned on, when a person imagines himself in the place of a hero, that is, brain zones, which at other times are not involved, begin to function. It should be noted that this effect does not occur while watching TV or playing a computer game.
Besides stimulating brain activity, reading "correct Literature" teaches to express your thoughts and to build your speech competently. Therefore, reading fiction at least two hours a day is better than watching a movie.
The reason is that reading does not limit human imagination. That is why, generally, film adapted from book does not meet the expectations of the audience, who draw in their minds an entirely different picture. The more a person reads, analyzing and evaluating the behavior and actions of the characters, the more and better his character and personality is formed.
It is also worth noting, first of all scientists recommend to read science fiction, as this literature stimulates brain activity, develops imagination and thinking. "I tell my students that it is better to read good fiction than a second-rate scientific literature: it is interesting, and the probability of error in the forecasts is approximately the same. Even those of us who do not believe in the singularity of the mid-century, expect a constant or even increasing flow of innovations in the field of bio and nanotechnology, "- said Cambridge lecturer Martin Rees, professor of cosmology and astrophysics.
Dr. Raymond Mar from York University in Canada said: "We perceive the stories with the help of basic cognitive functions. In the brain, there is no special module that allows us to do this. That’s why we understand history as well as the real world.” The new theory of the scientist suggests the following: reading fiction can improve the ability to understand other people. People while reading often think about their life experiences. They have thoughts and emotions that are consistent with what is happening in the story. According to Raymond Mar, reading fiction can influence the understanding of the society and cause reflection on the past and future social interactions. Events that occur with the hero of the story and resonate in our experience help us understand aspects of our own past. "Despite the fact that many elements of the fiction are fantastic, there is a true part about human psychology and relationships," - says Raymond March.
A study conducted in 2006 showed that reading fantastic tales affects the ability of the person to guess the mental states of people from photographs. Also a fantastic tale can be a key to the positive changes in a social life.
Neil Gaiman in his lectures gave an example: "In 2007 I was in China, in the first convention of science fiction and fantasy approved by the party. At some point I asked the official representative of the government: "Why?" Since the SF was not approved for a long time. What has changed? Quite simply, he told me. The Chinese have made great things if they were brought the scheme. But they didn’t improve or create themselves. They did not invent. That’s why they sent a delegation to the United States, to Apple, Microsoft, Google, and questioned people who created the future of their own. And we found that they were reading science fiction in their childhood. "
The most part of what was once described in the literature moved into our daily life. One cannot ignore the fact that our thoughts can be materialized, and the technique of visualization (this is what happens when reading books) works flawlessly. Fantastic tales show us another world, where we have never been and probably never would have known about it. It may be different from ours in bad or good direction. Visiting the wonderful world of books, we can feel the anger and frustration that we have in reality, and perhaps a desire to change and improve our real world will occur. Unfortunately, by analyzing fantastic literature of the last century, you realize that it tends to be projected over the years in our reality. And this projection is mostly destructive.
The poet Leo Rubinstein notes that "now people are left in blogs and stopped to read the literature, but they still believe they can judge a book and can identify what books should be given in the classroom and what is not worth for it." Wherein an interrogation has shown that many people would like to remove from the school curriculum the "Master and Margarita" by Bulgakov and all the works of Leo Tolstoy. It comes out that in modern society, less and less people realize the necessity to read fiction and scientific literature, preferring TV, social networking and computer games. Although the researchers from the University of Sussex has proved that the 6 minutes of reading reduces the level of stress in more than 2 times. And it is even more effective than walking.
Read good fiction. Grow yourself and inculcate a healthy habit of reading books to your children. Not for nothing the scientists say that people are divided into two categories: those who read books and those who listen to those who read.
Natalia Komova.
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