Hiroko SASAKI
(2016.10)
The joy of sharing what they saw and felt through reading picture books together
Even nowadays, I often hear the question, "Can babies understand picture
books?" In general, in my country, “picture books for babies" means books
for 0- to 2-year-olds. However, I think the person who asked this question is
referring to the books for infants. For this reason, in this paper, I will target the age group of 0- to 1-year-olds.
Generally speaking, I believe the most important activity for babies and
toddlers is play. It is important that they learn various things using their five
senses, interacting with their immediate environments. Their lives start when
they gradually recognize their surroundings and the support they are
receiving. When they turn age 1 or 2, playing with friends becomes an important part of their lives. Through a realization of the existence of people who are other than themselves, they start seeing things from multiple perspectives. In that sense, I really understand the opinion of people that say that there are many things that you can do to help vulnerable babies before reading picture books to them.
So why do we have such different views regarding picture books for babies? I think it is because the concept of reading picture books for babies has gradually changed in the last thirty years. As for adults who are not familiar with the new types of books for babies, they tend to imagine the interaction between picture books and young children such as the reading of simple stories with illustrations to children perhaps from when they are around age 1½;- year- old. Or maybe they imagine interaction such as that of young children pointing and naming objects and “object books” being read to them by adults.
So the question arises, what do you mean by infants reading picture books?
I will show you how new baby picture books are different from the traditional first books. I call those new books, “nonsense picture books.”
Here are some examples: Soichi, a five months old, smiled and laughed when he heard his mother saying onomatopoeic words “moko” and “nyoki” from the book “Moko mokomoko” 1). At ten months when the same book was read to him with some rhythmical intonations, he demonstrated his excitement by flapping his arms and making vocal sounds “kyu.” Because the mother enjoyed the cheerful responses from the child, she started using a variety of rhythmical vocal sounds, which in turn prompted his creative expressions.
When Peekaboo2) was read to Tai at the age of 10 months by his mother, he showed excitement by making joyful sounds at the expression of “boo!” This story prompted his playful interaction with his friend. When his 1 year old friend came to play with him, he started playing peek-a-boo with his friend. He hid behind the curtain and then opened the curtain. When he saw his friend’s face, both of them got very excited. In this way they enjoyed the shortest story in the world called “peek-a-poo” using their entire bodies 3)
I have collected so many such episodes, and I believe these could be the answer to the question "Do babies understands picture books"?
Using picture books as media, babies can become fascinated through interactive play with their mothers who sing with the rhythmical sounds and melodies, which are written in nonsense picture books. Such interactions could be interpreted as follows: Let’s play with the rhythms of Japanese sounds; Let’s enjoy the change of the illustrations as you turn the page; Let’s enjoy interacting with the reader of the book through exchanging facial expressions and gestures; and Let’s play with the change of rhythm and repetition of patterns. Then I started wondering if we should have invented more pop-up picture books for babies. I think the picture books with simple tricks, such as flaps, pull-tabs, peeking windows, and sounds, may trigger more excitement in babies.
Understanding babies’ minds through their co-actions and responses to nonsense picture books
When talking about reading books to babies, I believe that the expression of “interactive reading” makes more sense than “reading books to them.” The traditional concept of reading books to babies has the connotation of unidirectional relationship, which is adults reading books to babies who are illiterate. Based on my many years of experiences, I believe that the unidirectional pattern of adults as readers, and children as recipients, may not be beneficial when considering the benefits of picture books for babies.
You may understand the differences between “reading books to children” and “interactive readings” by imaging the latter as a scene in which adults and children express and exchange their feelings and opinions through picture books. The interactive readings becomes more important when considering picture books for babies. The younger the children are, the more we need to pay attention and observe the reactions of the children. Consequently, the person who reads or shares picture books with babies should be highly skilled. It also requires the readers’ creative efforts.
Highly skilled readers can accurately interpret and respond to the baby’s facial expressions, vocal sounds, and gestures while reading books to them. Without such responsiveness, babies will become very bored. In addition, the reading time should be limited to10 - 20 minutes per day.
I believe the skillful reader of picture books is a person who is able to grasp the triad relationship among the reader, the child, and the picture book. I sometimes think the educational effects toward interactive readings is for adults, rather than for children. By observing babies who get excited by the humorous and nonsensical picture books written by Shinta Cho, I was able to gain some psychological insights into babies’ minds.
The fundamental principle of reading picture books for babies is the discovery that they are not just the smaller and simpler version of picture books for young children who begin to understand language. It is not necessary to have bright colors, simple plots or recognizable shapes. It is almost close to the discovery that “children are not little adults" in modern history. I also think those Japanese nonsense picture books may be impossible to translate into other languages, because of the uniqueness of Japanese language such as sounds, rhythms and patterns (e.g., onomatopoeia).
What babies can gain through picture books is not just the skills of language and picture comprehension. Rather, it is the ability to make connection with others, to express their own feelings, and to understand human minds, which is often very complicated and difficult to grasp.
There are no stereotypical “developmental stages of reading.” Each child has its own developmental path with picture books.
Reading picture books is an interaction. If a baby shows interests and responds to the book, the reader may try various ways of reading. On the contrary, if a baby does not clearly show her/his interest to the book, the reader may not try hard to engage her/him in the activity. Therefore, when the baby doesn’t respond, it is rarely the responsibility of the reader. Rather, it may be influenced by the personality of the child or the relationship between them. I would also like to emphasize that there are individual differences in whether or not the child responds to the book immediately. We should respect the individual pace of the child as to when he becomes interested in books. There are some children who are not interested in books, but interested in reading the environment around them.
I have collected much documentation on children’s reading throughout Japan. Therefore, I cannot believe in the theory that “reading activities should start early and otherwise, they won’t like reading.”
Book Start is the gift of the experience of picture books for babies and their parents
Book Start is not only a movement to give picture books as gifts in Japan. As I mentioned earlier, using picture books as a mediator, we are giving “the experience of picture books” to the baby and the person who is going to read the book to the baby. This also provides the experience of pleasure and discovery between them.
The selection committee for Bookstart Japan consists of the experts who have had a lot of opportunities to interact with babies. Based on their guidelines for selection, they will choose ‘the 20 recommended books for babies by the Bookstart Japan.” Therefore, the quality of those picture books are pretty much assured.
The meaning of sharing a picture book
One of the stereotypical questions that I often received from people in regard to the topic of picture books and babies is “How do these picture books help the future of the child?” When considering the relationship between picture books and babies, I think this question was fundamentally wrong. If you see the picture books as a tool, we will end up with stereotypical answer to this question such as “language development” and “emotional education.”
Reading a picture book together means embedding your heart in the imaginary world, which is different from our daily real world. In fact the enjoyment of reading, which includes reading picture books, in each stage of our lives, can put color in our lives. The destination for this will be decided by each child.
Notes
1) Moko Moko Moko. Written by Shuntarou Tanikawa, illustrated Sadanasa motonaga, 1977, Bunken shuppan.（『もこ もこもこ』たにかわ しゅんたろう さく・もとなが さだまさ え／文献出版 1977.）
2) Peekaboo. Illustrated by Yasuo Segawa, Written by Miyoko Matsutani, 1967, Doshinsha.（松谷みよ子あかちゃんの本 『いない いない ばあ』瀬川康男え／童心社 1967.）
3) Literary Theory, Terry Eagleton, 1983, Blackwell Publishers Ltd, Oxford.（『新版 文学とは何か 現代批評理論への招待』T.イーグルトン著・大橋洋一郎訳／岩波書店 1997. ）