Relationship between Children’s Development and their Literature

Children's Literature and Child Development

Ages 0-2 sensorimotor -period

nursery rhymes for reading aloud- brief, plotless, concept books with brightly colored pictures
interactive books (e.g. touching and opening little doors) often in the form of heavy, nontoxic cardboard
or cloth books

Ages 2-4 pre-conceptual stage-

Simple-plot picture storybooks and folktales for reading aloud

nursery rhymes for them to memorize concept books including numbers, letters and more complex
concepts like opposites (e.g. counting books, word books, and illustrated dictionaries)

Ages 4-7 Beginning readers

intuitive stage

easy-to-read picture storybooks, folktales, and rhymes for reading aloud, storytelling, and “play-
reading” informational books for beginning readers that help children find out about the world and how
it works- they begin to understand the notion of stories, letter-sound relationship, left-to-right and top-
to-bottom progression of print on the page, and a slight vocabulary.

Ages 7-9 Transitional readers period of concrete operations

(7-11 years)-

longer picture books and short chapter books with simple straightforward plots and writing styles- their
interest in folktales begin to fall off by age 8; they show more interest in realistic stories and adventures
of young characters

Ages 9-12 Competent readers

sophisticated picture storybooks and novels (chapter books) with more complicated plots, including
realistic fiction (survival stories, peer stories, animal stories, mysteries, and romances), historical fiction,
and science fiction series books containing similar topics, recurring characters, and formulaic patterns of
plots
Children’s literature provides students with the opportunity to respond to literature and develop their own
opinions about the topic.

This strengthens the cognitive developmental domain as it encourages deeper thought

about literature. Quality literature does not tell the reader everything he/she needs to know; it

allows for some difference in opinion. One reader may take something completely different away from the piece of
literature than the next reader, based on the two personal viewpoints and experiences. Students can learn to
evaluate and analyze literature, as well as summarize and hypothesize about the topic.

These experiences strengthen students’ cognitive functions in being able to form opinions on their own and to
express themselves through language in summarizing the plot of a book.

Second, children’s literature provides an avenue for students to

learn about their own cultural heritage and the cultures of other people.

It is crucial for children to learn these values because, “developing positive attitudes toward our own culture and
the cultures of others is

necessary for both social and personal development

” (Norton, 2010, p. 3). In saying this, however, when teaching students about the cultural heritage of others, one
should be very

careful

in selecting which books to recommend to young readers. There are many stories, some folktales, which contain
blatant stereotypes and inaccuracies about certain cultural groups. Many books are available that depict

culture as an important piece of society that is to be treasured and valued, and those books can have great value
for students.

Third, children’s literature helps students develop

emotional intelligence.

Stories have the power to promote

emotional and moral development

. Children’s literature “contains numerous moments of crisis, when characters make moral decisions and
contemplate the reasons for their decisions,” an important skill for children to see modeled (Norton, 2010, p. 34).
For example the story “The Scar” (Moundlic, 2007) is an effective book to read with students in order to teach
them about responding to grief, as it is about a boy whose mother dies. This requires a complex level of emotional
intelligence, as many young children do not understand death. The topic of death would be more appropriate for
an older grade level, but it is an important topic to discuss with students.

Children’s literature encourages students to think deeper about their own feelings.

Children’s literature also encourages creativity.

” (Norton 2010). example the book Look Closer: Art Masterpieces Through The Ages (Desnoettes, 2006) are
imaginative and original books that encourage students to learn about music and art, and they are

engaging in their design and interactivity.

Children’s literature promotes the development of students ’internal imaginations. Finally, children’s literature is
of value because it is a

timeless tradition,

one in which “books are the major means of transmitting our literary heritage from one generation to the next”

(Norton, 2010, p. 3). Children are only young for a short time, and so we must give them access to a basic literary
heritage of timeless books. Quality children’s literature has the great power to captivate audiences for many
generations.

Children’s literature is extremely valuable in both the school setting and at home.

Teachers and parents should both be able to differentiate between quality and mediocre literature, in order to give
student access to the best books to encourage these important values of literature and considering developmental
domains.

Children’s literature is valuable in providing an

opportunity to respond to literature, as well as cultural knowledge, emotional intelligence and creativity, social and
personality development, and literature history to students across generations.

Exposing children to quality literature can contribute to the creation of responsible, successful, and caring
individuals.

Lets remember

All literature and literacy, is born from the human need to tell stories, to tell stories about one self or about others,
to tell stories about the world to better understand our existence, the others and the universe we live in. All the
stories, the myths, the fables and the novels, including those addressed to children are, in fact, the result of this
wish and this basic need: they help us to live, to survive; they help children to grow up and develop.

Children’s literature is important because it provides students with opportunities to respond to literature; it gives
students appreciation about their own cultural heritage as well as those of others; it helps students develop
emotional intelligence and creativity; it nurtures growth and development of the student’s personality and social
skills; and it transmits important literature and themes from one generation to the next