
What's Going on in Your Child's Brain When You Read Them a Story? - laurex
https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/51281/whats-going-on-in-your-childs-brain-when-you-read-them-a-story
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austincheney
I want to know what's going on in my child's brain when they watch YouTube
videos of other people playing video games.

~~~
winchling
The practice of consuming content accompanied by a commentary or 'gloss' is an
educational practice dating back to the Middle Ages:

[https://sites.nd.edu/manuscript-
studies/2015/09/17/reading-b...](https://sites.nd.edu/manuscript-
studies/2015/09/17/reading-between-and-around-the-lines-an-introduction-to-
glosses-and-commentaries/)

The novice gets to see a more experienced student tackle the same problems,
'live'. Which helps him to identify some of his _own_ misconceptions.

The author of the book or video game is less able to assist in this way
because as an expert he has forgotten his early misconceptions, suffering as
he does from the Curse of Knowledge:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_knowledge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_knowledge)

Modern publishers have dropped the practice because [insert correct historical
explanation here ... because we don't copy our texts by hand?] and this may
explain why textbooks now so unreadable. The practice has re-emerged
spontaneously on YT because children, contrary to popular belief, actually
_enjoy_ learning things.

~~~
jacobolus
> _dating back to the Middle Ages_

Or realistically long before the invention of writing. Observing the world
together and explaining what is happening is one of the things parents do with
their young children all the time, and is also a big part of how
tutoring/coaching/mentoring works in any field, and arguably a focus of good
lectures as well.

Legibly adding layers of commentary in written books is a difficult
typographical challenge though. Medieval-style books aren’t all that easy to
read.

The biggest problem by far with many current textbooks, at least in early
grades, is that they are developed by people without any particular skill or
expertise, based on a terrible committee process driven largely by politics
and marketing. I don’t think adding interlinear annotations would help.

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finaliteration
> The emotional bonding and physical closeness, Hutton says, were missing. So
> were the exchanges known as "dialogic reading," where caregivers point out
> specific words or prompt children to "show me the cat?" in a picture.
> "That's a whole other layer," of building reading Hutton says.

While I absolutely agree that the emotional bond is one of the biggest parts
of the experience I don’t think it has to be limited to reading. For example,
my daughter will sometimes sit on the couch next to me and watch YouTube or
play mobile games and tell me about what she’s watching or playing. I’ll also
ask her what she’s doing and try to add some context or have her show me what
she’s interested in. She also shows me stuff she thinks is hilarious and we
can laugh about it together. We do read together before bedtime, but I think
overall just the fact that she gets those small moments of connection even
while her head is in her screen makes a difference.

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PebblesRox
I'm curious to know how storytelling without a book but with the storyteller
present would compare. You wouldn't have pictures but there would be lots of
body language that you don't get with just a recording.

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yawz
My son is 7, and he’s in a transition phase where for ~45 mins/day we read to
each other (naturally, for a long while I was the only one reading). I’ve
always been curious about his mental development related to hearing stories
read to him. Fortunately so far I’ve only heard and read positive things about
this. But I must admit I’m surprised to see that the so-called Goldilocks
environment is created using illustrated books. I always thought that visual
cues created a lazier imagination because a part of the work is done by the
artist on behalf of the listener.

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nanokilo
It's pretty interesting to see that even after all these advancements in
technology and better-than-ever animated movies, the best way to tell a story
to a child is still through a good old illustrated book.

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rossdavidh
I could totally believe that this is a true and valid result. I could also
believe that the "audio-only" case did not work well, not because it's "too
cold", but because perhaps it is really freakin' loud inside that FMRI and
they cannot hear well enough to follow what's going on.

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benj111
So for fun, I read this article to my child. He just farted at me and giggled,
maybe too meta.

Ps how do you get a 4 year old to lie still in an mri ?

~~~
tonyedgecombe
When they are young enough you can read anything as long as it's in a soothing
voice, I read the C++ annotated reference to my son.

~~~
Technetium_Hat
I assume it puts him to sleep pretty easily. Whatever happened to hard-copy
programming reference books, anyway?

~~~
rossdavidh
I have often seem them used as a base for a monitor.

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8bitsrule
Questions about kids' minds always surprise me. Since the askers presumedly
had a childhood, can they really _not_ remember the answers from their own
childhood?

If noone ever read them a story, that's a sad possibility, I guess. (That was
one of the advantages of radio drama.)

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rjsw
If you read a child stories with various elements that are clearly not true to
life then it shouldn't be a surprise if the child invents similar stories.
Parents don't seem to make the connection though and describe their children
as having "imaginary friends" etc...

