A newly published study suggests that to increase your child’s motivation to read, you may need to ensure their books provide information on how the world works.
The findings, which show children prefer such stories, were recently published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.
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Researchers observed 48 children ages 3 to 4 in Austin, Texas during two sessions that were two to four weeks apart. At the sessions, adult volunteers read two expository children's books about animals written and illustrated by Steve Jenkins. One, "Biggest, Strongest, Fastest," provided non-expository yet factual descriptions of animals' appearances. The other, "What Do You Do When Something Wants to Eat You?" explained how an animal's body part or behavior was pertinent to their survival, CNN reported.
"If they're more interested or excited about reading, they're going to ask the parent to read more with them or be more cooperative reading together with their parent or other adults in their life," study author Margaret Shavlik, a doctoral student and research assistant at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, told CNN. "If we find books that are more interesting to children, they'll maybe have an increase in motivation to read and also may get more out of it."
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After the volunteer read the books, they asked the children what they thought of each one. Children seemed to be equally interested in both. However, nearly 44% of children chose the book focused on causality as their favorite during both sessions. Comparatively, 29% picked the book less focused on causality as their favorite.
“We believe this result may be due to children's natural desire to learn about how the world works,” Shavlik said in a press release.
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“If children do indeed prefer storybooks with causal explanations, adults might seek out more causally rich books to read with children — which might in turn increase the child's motivation to read together, making it easier to foster early literacy,” Shavlik said.
Past research has probed children’s interest in causality, but this study gives the first sign that causality could be a clue on how to capture children’s minds as they learn. In the future, studies could delve into whether or not causal-focused activities can enhance the outcomes of things such as language skills and literacy.
