Why reading-like behavior develops
By being read to regularly from very early in their lives, children soon begin to demonstrate their growing enjoyment of the experience. Their attention span increases, their repertoire of favorite stories expands, and they begin demanding that these be read over and over. Their avid listening to stories in the secure and close proximity of a loved parent become a deeply rewarding, warm, human experience for the children and their parents. Through the sounds and rhythms of the rich and inviting language, through the interesting and colorful illustrations, through the constant stimulation of their receptive imaginations, and through the reliving of these experiences in anticipatory ways, the children soon begin to develop very high expectations for books and reading.
Children begin to see books as sources of personal pleasure and derive from them a type of satisfaction they can secure in no other way. They quickly learn how to handle books in the physical sense and begin to use them in their independent access to the experience they enjoy so much.
By being in the company of an adult who regularly provides an oral model of reading behavior and by constantly associating books and this behavior with pleasurable and desirable activity, young children are placed in a state of disequilibriurn (Piaget, 1955) for they are sharing in an experience over which they have no control. According to Piaget, when children are placed in this situation, they will automatically strive to achieve a state of equilibrium by attempting to gain mastery over the experience, especially if it has been a pleasurable one for them.
The way to achieve equilibration is to seek repetition of the experience through asking their parents to "Read it again." By following along as the story is read and reread they are able to learn to page and picture match its reproduction through reading-like behavior.
How reading-like behavior develops
A stories are read and reread, children will frequently begin to participate in their reading in a variety of ways. If the story is a highly predictable one which had a rhyming, repetitive, and/or cumulative pattern to its language, they may begin to join in during the first reading.
mumble reading-use an indecipherable mumble in their attempts to read along with the reader
cooperative reading- the reading of the story that becomes a shared activity
completion reading- when the reader paused at varios points in a story inviting the children to complete te sentence
Echo reading- when children repeat a phrase or a sentence immediately after it is read to them
The characteristics of reading-like behavior
Two major characteristics
initial stage it is usually extremely fluent and expressive, and resembles the reading of a competent adult reader. As the reader gains more experience and accuracy (word level) in retrieving their stories and become more aware of the role print plays in reading, their reading-like behavior begins to exhibit a more arhythmical quality.
Fluent reading-like behavior - absorbing the story
Arhythmic reading-like behavior- accurate reproduction of their stories
