Influence of Joint Reading of Parents and Children on the Aesthetic Sense of Children - Research Paper Example

? Parent-Child Shared Reading College: The Aesthetics of Parent-Child Shared Reading Wordless Storybooks Introduction Learning in children is a topic that has generated a lot of attention among many researchers in the world. Particularly the participation of a parent in child learning has become an agenda that has not yet been fully satisfied by literature. For effective child learning, there is much emphasis on curriculum modeling and the use effective learning tools that motivates, induce creativity and develop the child’s learning and awareness abilities.The use of wordless story books that have an impact on the child’s learning process has been recommended at the elementary level as the best strategies to develop the child’s aesthetic ability (Beauchat, Blamey & Walpole, 2009).The superiority of this method emanates from its ability in cultivating exploration and awareness, expression and creativity, and appreciation and response. Scholars have attached more value to quality reading rather than quantity of reading at the elementary level of learning, and more parent-engaging strategies to cultivate a child’s aesthetic abilities. The purpose of this research is to investigate the extent to which parent-child shared reading influences the aesthetic ability of a child.In this case, the research will focus on the application of parent-child shared reading of a wordless book, or rather a book that has no words but only contains images and a non-verbal gestures (Tompkins, 2007: Wasik, 2010). By measuring the participation of a parent in this a child’s learning experience and observing the child’s engagement in play, role play, drama, relationship with peers, it is possible to assess the influence of a child-parent shared reading in a child’s learning abilities. Consequently, this paper will present research based conclusions and recommendations that can be applied in improving instructional methods that facilitate better learning abilities in young children. Problem Statement In elementary teaching, there is great pressure to reform the instructional methods and engage new teaching strategies to enhance a child’s awareness, creativity, reading and writing techniques. According to a research by WaterLoo (2013), children find it a complex matter to decode the message in a wordless book and while the book may amuse them, they may end up without grasping the intended meaning in the pictography. In addition, parents disregard the picture story books and pay more attention to the worded books; a matter that often suppresses the child’s learning abilities as they get to elementary schools (Wolfeand Flewitt, 2010). Consequently, the child’s performance is limited and their optimal productivity cannot be tapped, an issue that concerns every society that has value for civilization in the society (Schickedanz, & McGee, 2010: Teale, Hoffman & Paciga, 2010).). By investigating the efficiency of parent-child shared reading of wordless books would help in boosting this habit within families and consequently contribute to the development of instructional methods at the elementary level. According to Koshy (2009), research is one of the most powerful tools in curriculum development strategy. Purpose of the Research General Objectives To investigate the effectiveness of parent-child shared reading in developing aesthetic abilities in a child’s learning. To investigate the key virtues of Parent-Child shared learning that are critical in development of child’s aesthetic abilities. Specific Objectives To conduct an interview for a mother and her child and their experience in shared reading. To observe the child free play, role play, drawings and interaction with its peers. To analyze the progress of the child’s learning abilities change within a period of one year of shared reading. To draw conclusions and design recommendable shared-reading strategies that can improve a child’s aesthetic abilities. Research Hypothesis This research seeks to test the hypothesis that states that shared parent-child studies are effective in developing a child’s aesthetic abilities in elementary learning. Secondly, it will test the hypothesis that assumes that quality and not the quantity of wordless storybook reading that improves aesthetic abilities in children learning. Research Questions Does Parent-child shared learning influence a child’s aesthetic abilities? Is it the quality or the quantity of wordless story book reading that is crucial in modeling a child’s learning abilities? Literature Review Aesthetic abilities refer to the ability of a child to learn through development of a sensory skill to observe and make meaningful conclusions from pictures and works of art. The learning ability is the ability of a child to develop cognitive skills to observe, relate and interprete visual information or written works and make meaningful judgement of the same. A child learning ability can be measured from their ability to make drawings of art and even their ability to engage in social games among its peers. In the recent past, there particular attention has been diverted to the development of reading and writing skills in children within the pre-school age bracket and the effect of this kind of approach on the learning process. The National Council of Curriculum assessment (2012) recognizes the need to define the literacy of a human being right from the time they are born until the time of their eventuality. The implication of their idea is that the development of a child’s learning process starts right from the preschool age and is nurtured all the way up the academic height (Morrow, Freitag & Gambrell, 2009 : Sansanelli & Hustedt, 2009).).In essence, the literacy is cumulated and the literacy of a child will be determined by the kind of learning they were exposed during their pre-school age. Silverman and Crandell (2010)have pointed out that the abilities of a child to learn, read and write in a vocabulary class are determined by the pre-school preparation that a child receives back at home from their parents. In brief, there seems to be a positive relationship between a child’s performance in elementary school and the pre-school learning that the child was exposed to. Aesthetic learning is one of the instructional methods that have been emphasized for a child before they even get to school. Essa (2012) defines aesthetic abilities as the ability to make meaning interpretation of graphical illustrations, a skill that requires awareness, creativity and effective learning techniques. For pre-schoolers, the learning process begins with visualizationof images and the ability to create mental images that make some meaning to them. At the early age, they cannot read and write and hence cannot learn through their eyes and Kindle (2011) points out that learning does not commence until a child is able to attach some meaning to the kind of images and objects they see. The concession of most researchers is that aesthetics are powerful learning materials at preschool age. Three aesthetic abilities that include exploration and awareness, expression and creativity, and appreciation and response have been considered important in a childlearning process.First, a child must be able to study the objects or images that are presented to them and become aware of their meaning and attach this meaning to these objects (McGee & Richgels, 2008: Wasik& Blewitt, 2006: Wasik & Bond, 2009). Secondly, they should be able to express their understanding of these images and develop a creative mind that is capable of imagining and deriving the relationship that exists between the images. Finally, the response of the child to this kind of learning and the kind of appreciation they acquire from it defines their ability to overcomethe barriers that stand in the path of aesthetic abilities. Lillemyr (2009) points out that the aesthetic abilities in young learners must be nurtured to enhance their comprehension of the wordless story books that form a critical part of pre-school learning. The idea of this scholar is that aesthetic abilities are the core aspects of pre-school knowledge development in young children in modern education. Research by the Water Loo (2013) team of research showed that children experience numerous difficulties in the aesthetic learning and they perceive wordless storybooks as more complexthan their parents do. In their findings, they reported that parent-child engagement plays a key role in developing the aesthetic abilities of their childrenin the early age education. However, they realized that many a time parents ignore wordless stories that come during their interactive sessions. Most parents will tend to skip or omit the wordless stories on the assumption that these have little impact on the knowledge of their children (Zucker, Ward, & Justice, 2009). This against the research of Nyhout and Neill (2013) that proved that wordless storybooks, if well instructed, go away in instilling creativity in children at their early age. The key conclusion that can be made from the research of these scholars is that the degree of parental engagement in the development of a child’s aesthetic abilities defines the potential of a child to demonstrate creativity and innovation in laterstages of learning. Kim (2008) defines parent-child shared book reading as an instructional approach that aims at enhancing the aesthetic abilities of a child through an interactive learning session.In this method, the parents model proficient reading strategies and skills by creating enjoyable learning experiences that are motivating and inspiring to a child. To do this, the parents introduce their children to various works of various authors and instructors and a variety of texts and prepare them to be proficient readers and writers in their early age (Lonigan & Shanahan, 2010: Machado, 2010).The ability of parents to provide innovative instructional methods nurturing the child’s aesthetic abilities determines the creativity that these children acquire at this age of development. Parent-child share story book reading is an instructional approach that has garnered a lot of attention from researchers seeking to explain the unique characteristics of this kind of teaching. Kindle (2011) launched a research to compare the characteristics of different shared reading approaches that different parents adopt in developing reading and writing skills in children. In his conclusion, he pointed out that different parents use different approaches to achieve shared reading and that each of this approach achieves different effects in children. However, he discovered that parents who laid emphasis on children aesthetic values were successful in developing effective learning skills in their children (Justice, Meier & Walpole, 2005). Kassow (2008) surveyed conducted a research to investigate the keenness of parents in nurturing the students' interpretation of the wordless storyby examining the time that parents dedicate to the stories that are conveyed through images in these wordless story books. At the end of this research, he found out that most parents were enthusiastic to provide reading materials for their children but did not lay emphasis on the children’s ability to correlate the pictures and comprehend the stories provided in these stories (Heisey & Kucan, 2010: Justice, 2002). The research of these scholars shows that there exists a great weakness among many parents in providing effective learning strategy to help their children develop creativity in reading, drawing and writing. Although there is a concession among researchers that parent-child shared reading is a superior preschool teaching strategy, there seems to be a shortage of research on the factors that determine effective parent-child shared wordless story book reading (Essa, 2012). The purpose of this research is to identify the characteristics effective preschool instructional approach and to provide recommendations that would improve parent-child interactive pre-school learning. Research Design Selection of Sample Population In this study, the study population is the range of all parents that have children in the preschool age of learning. For the purpose of this study, a mother and her child of age six years will be used as the sample study population. Time Scope of the Study For the purpose of this study, the changes of child creativity and learning development will be examined within a period of one year. Methods of Data Collection For this research interview and observation methods will be used to collect qualitative data from the subjects of the study. The mother and the child will be interviewed to determine the qualities and the quantitativecharacteristics of their interactive sessions. On the other hand, observation methods will be used to collect data on the child's ability to participate in role, role play with peers, the child’s work of art and drawing, and the child’s interaction with peers. Data Analysis In this research data obtained from the survey will be subjected to a qualitative analysis. The level of the child’s interaction with peers, take part in role play, and ability to draw and art work. The students will be provided with a book that they had already encountered before and will be required to read it and narrate the story.The amount of time spent on reading and the number of wordless book exposed to the child will be regarded as will be used to measure the quantity of the parents-child wordless book reading. The quality of the book reading session will be measured from the amount of time that the parents spends in guiding the child as an average per day. Findings From the study, it was found out that the mother assigned the child a study lesson of one hour each working day and that within the one hour period the mother participated in the lesson for 30 minutes. The student had read 5 wordless story books within a one year period and of the 5 books, the child could remember to narrate 3 of them. From observation, the child, was active while interacting with the peer and took part in key positions in the games that they organized with the peers. The child could draw a rough sketch of a snake, tortoise and hare without referring to their picture. From the book, the child could draw most of the picture and even name them. When the child was asked to narrate a story from one the book they had read with the mother, she managed to narrate 10 out of the 12 pages of the book. Results and Discussion The results show that the ability of a child to read varies with its aesthetic experiencesin the home environment. In this case, the child was provided with coaching and was motivated throughout their learning experience from the mother.This seems to be the main reason as to why the child could manage to narrate and even draw various animals that she had seen in the learning process. The parent’s participation in the child’s lesson was averaged at thirty minutes. During this time the parent was able to provide the child with explanations and to help the childin developing awareness and creative skills. The time of exposure of the child to learning materials was five hours in each week and the child reported that the lessons were interesting. In addition, the child was exposed to a variety of text materials and that seems to be the main reason why the child has developed the ability to be creative and the courage to interact actively with its peers. The mother encouraged the child to participate in peer games, plays and role play as a way of enhancing its experiences. The mother’s had built a strong social relationship with the child and this was key in the communication perspective of the learning process. The ability of the child to learn and be creative seems to be a result of this cohesive interaction with the parent. The parent played a key role in coaching the student and she played a critical role in ensuring that childrenlearnt and understoodthe story in the wordless story books. This scaffolding allowed the child to develop creative and expressive aesthetic abilities during her learning. In addition, the child developedan appreciation and response abilitiesthat are necessary in aesthetic learning. In addition, the parent demonstrated a value for the quality and not quantity of learning and development in the parent-child shared reading wordless books. In this regard, the continued improvement of the child in its learning abilities seems to emanate to the emphasis of its mother to value of aesthetic reading rather than the hurried reading that is not fruitful. In brief, the results indicate that through effective instructional methods the child has learnt to creativity, awareness and responsiveness in aesthetic studies. The aesthetic ability of a child to read wordless books is tied to the mother abilities to coach the child. When a parent dedicates more time to the reading of wordless book, the child will have more time to familiarize with visual materials and consequently develop an awareness and cognitive skills. Notably, a parent also requires coaching and emphasizing on aesthetic learning materials and providing an interpretation to each element to ensure that the child develops learning skills. Conclusions From the results of the study, it is clear that parental participation in a child’s learning is critical and it goes way far in defining the child’s creativity andunderstanding of the learning concepts. This is an affirmation of the hypothesis brought forward in this study that there exists an imperative relationship between the child’s learning and the participation of the parents in creating a favorable learning environment (Dickinson, Golinkoff& Hirsh-Pasek, 2010). In this study, the provision of one hour study period and parent intervention in the learning process has assisted the child to develop better understanding of the wordless stories.In this regard, it is possible to regard the parent - child shared reading a superior instruction method for pre-school teaching environment. Secondly, it is important to note the need for effective coaching and scaffolding in developing awareness and creative abilities in a child learning. The mother’s investment in the child learning and ensuring that the child had understood various concepts in the wordless story books helped the child to develop awareness and generate an imaginative mind, abilities that are core to aesthetic learningin children during their early age. At this point, it is possible to draw a direct relationship between the effectiveness of learning and the time dedicated to coaching and provision of motivation during the session shared between a parent and a child. In essence, the amount of the time dedicated to scaffolding is directly proportional to the knowledge acquired by the child with any interactive session. The need for motivation in child’s training is emphasized by the results of this study. While the child is excited about learning new concepts, the parents need to provide motivation and appreciation whenever the child demonstrates her creativity or even ability to remember various stories that they have encountered before. (Brabham & Lynch, 2002: Willett, Robinson, & Marsh, 2009). This kind of relation builds a mutual attachment between a parent and child during book reading session and this has a positive impact on the child’s ability to observe images, read and interprete them as they make some meaning to them. At this juncture, it is wise to note the negative impact of reprimanding a child during an interactive session especially when they get things wrong. Instead, more coaching and appreciative strategy would help to correct the child’s weakness which would have better end results. The parent-child communication strategies have to be optimized if parent-child shared reading instructional approach has to prove effective in the long run. Communication is a tool for exchange of information between the subjects of a learning session and it is a prerequisiteto the development of cordial relationship between the subjects. Through communication, the parent can be able to provide the child with critical information about their topic of discussion and assess the child’s understanding (Wilson, 2010). On the other hand, the child is able to communicate what they understand or imagine within a wordless book reading session. By the giving a child the chance to communicate, the parent can be able to point the weakness in their child’s learning abilities and hence define methods to suppress these weaknesses. To achieve effective communication, it is recommendable to provide a healthy social environment to allow the child to interact more openly with their parents (Biemiller&Boote, 2006: Bloom, 2010). Boosting the communication through enhancement of social interaction will help the child to develop an open relationship with their parent, a critical aspect of aesthetic learning in preschool education. Finally, this research points out that there is more value in quality ratherthan the quantity of parent-child shared wordless book reading. The success of the aesthetic leaning does not count on the number of books that a child has come across but the amount weight put on the interpretation of each message conveyed in each book's story. In this view, a parent should ensure that the child understands the story in each book and allow them to recite the message they obtain. This will boost their awareness, understanding and development of analytical skills that are important in childhood learning. To achieve this effect, there is need to create a conducive learning environment, allow the child to relate their studies with their own life experiences and keep the interactive sessions as exciting as possible. This will facilitate a slow but progressive growth of the child’s learning experiences that will facilitate learning in later stages of learning. Recommendations One finding of this study is that parental guidance in early childhood development is a critical aspect in the child’s learning. According to the theories of scaffolding, there is a need for intensive parental coaching within parent-child reading sessions to enhance a child’s learning abilities in the preschool stages. This point out to the need of enhancing scaffolding strategies in developing the child’s learning skills (Belland, Brian, Glazewski, Krista, and Richardson, 2008: Wohlwend, 2011). To achieve this, there is a need to engage instructional scaffolding model of educational development. In this method,emphasis is placed on the ability of a child discover without being assisted by the instructor. Allowing the child to learn and develop new knowledge by themselves allows them to remain creative and develop the best learning attitude to learning. In this respect, the parent should provide the child with opportunities to discover and learn new things. For example, allowing children to interact with their peers and participate in social role plays will allow them to explore new avenues of knowledge (Wohlwend, 2009). With effective instructional scaffolding, the child’s awareness and creativity will be boosted and this will have a positive impact on their understanding of wordless books. Lastly, there is a need to lay more emphasis on the quality of learning rather than the quantity of learning in parent-child shared wordless book reading. While it is necessary for a parent to provide a wide range of texts to their children, it is their obligation to ensure that each of these materials are understood and that they contributed to the child’s aesthetic experiences (Wolf, Crosson, & Resnick, 2006). One way to enhance understanding is providing materials that are creative and humorous to make the learning experience more exciting for the child. Psychologists suggest that a child will develop keen interests in things that interest them and that these things occupy the greater part of their mind (Beck, McKeown, &Kucan, 2012). Also, the parents should invest more time on parent-child shared book reading to ensure that the children become more aware and responsive of the material they read. 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