Tell me a story

Rania Khallaf discovers the importance of reading out loud
"Once upon a time, there was a small girl, sitting in a small room, looking from a small window, asking God for a small piece of bread..." I can still remember the stories my mother used to tell me 30 years ago. Mum has passed away, but the stories are still engraved in my memory.
Dina El-Gamal only read to her first baby. "When she started kindergarten, she could understand far better than her classmates could," El-Gamal said. Now, with three children on her hands and a PhD dissertation on the way, she has far less time to read to her children; but Salma has taken on that task. "The problem with books for pre-school children is that they are not classified according to age or subject, which makes it harder for a mother to choose a book," concluded El-Gamal.
Today, however, few mothers have the time for story time; and if they do, they have a hard time finding good, affordable books for their pre-school children.
How should we read to our children, why, and when? These are some of the questions raised at the three-day seminar held in last week in the framework of the International Children Book Fair to discuss the Read to Your Child campaign, sponsored by Mrs Suzanne Mubarak. The project, launched last year, was designed to distinguish the second decade of the Reading for All Campaign, started in 1991.
Studies of children's reading preferences, however, date back far longer, to 1970, when the first conference on children's culture took place. And if educational experts are still discussing the issue, it is because it remains such a thorny one.
"In a world of satellite channels and computer games, does reading aloud still have a meaning?" wondered Azza Abdel-Fattah of the Girls' College at Ain Shams University. "Nearly half a baby's intelligence is formed by the time it is four, and reading to children is crucial in this respect." Most parents neglect this, paying more attention to physical growth, although "reading aloud opens up the universe to a child and provides a wealth of new words and adventures," said Yaqoub El- Sharouni, a writer of children's books.
"We do not need to teach our babies how to read, but to stir in them the desire to read," he noted. "The problem with a child who does not like to read is that his brain has received unpleasant messages concerning books."
Mohamed Abul-Kheir, general director of the National Theatre for Children, highlighted the importance of interaction between performer and listener. "The child could perform one of the main characters of the story. Reading then becomes an interactive teaching process rather than a formal one," he explained.
Is this project practical, though, in a country where illiteracy is still around 50 per cent?
"Television and radio can play an important role in this process, especially in rural areas," suggested Soheir Mahfouz, director of the libraries and information department at Helwan University. Special corners for preschoolers should also be established in public libraries to encourage parents and older siblings to spend time reading to the little ones, she suggested.
"We cannot ignore the deteriorating economic conditions of many families in poor and rural areas. With the soaring prices of books, families must depend more on borrowing books from public libraries," argued Mona El-Hadidi, from Cairo University's Faculty of Communications. El-Sharouni suggested that children's stories would be distributed more widely if they were recorded on tape. "You will find a tape recorder in every home throughout Egypt. Recorded stories, accompanied by music, could be an excellent way of teaching children to read and strengthening their language skills," he advised.
A lot of parents in Egypt stop reading to their children when primary school starts; but this makes children stop reading too; and, as they grow older, the habit of not reading is entrenched. "Most parents link reading with school year, and this creates a relation of authority between the child and the book, which in turn breeds a hatred of reading," El-Hadidi went on. "It is essential that parents continue to read for their children as long as possible. The joy of listening to a story accompanies people for most of their lives," El-Sharouni agreed.
In her opening speech at the 18th International Children's Book Fair, Mrs. Mubarak stressed that children's books and magazines should be more cheerful and streamlined in design.
Mona Gad, dean of the Faculty of Kindergartens, underscored the need for publishers to pay more attention to illustrations, especially in books for preschoolers. "Colours attract children's attention, and illustrations should address the sight, mind, and imagination. They should convey certain messages, trigger questions and explain the written ideas," she added.
The content of children's books at this stage is yet another critical issue. "We should avoid telling children stories that will frighten them, or even threaten them," Gad added. Ne'am El- Baz, a children's author, suggested that parents should not choose books according to their own preferences. "We do not want to create copies of ourselves. We should present children with various kinds of stories and information regardless of our own moods. Moreover, we should involve children aged three and older in choosing and buying books for themselves," she recommended.
In a recent poll El-Baz conducted to find out whether and why parents read to their children, about 40 per cent said they read aloud just to calm the children down. About 30 per cent of the sample said they read during mealtimes, to encourage their children to eat. And 10 percent of parents said that the reading process would help their children grow accustomed to reading later on. The respondents, however, were unanimous in affirming that they do not choose books for a certain age category, but read whatever they happen to find.
Some educational experts suggest that before we read to our children, we should first read about them. "Parents, writers and teachers should understand the psychology of preschool children to know how to address them, whether by reading or writing for them," Gad affirmed. "They do not teach students how to read to babies at the Faculty of Kindergartens. Special courses should be tailored to train students on the techniques of storytelling," El-Sharouni suggested. And yet Arabic libraries lack studies about this specific age category.
A dozen translated stories for very young children were published in the framework of the Read to Your Child campaign last year. El-Hadidi also suggested that unlike the Reading for All campaign, which takes place during the summer vacation, Read to your Child should continue year-round. "This will encourage publishers to publish more books for and about preschool children," she told Al-Ahram Weekly. "We can safely depend on stories translated from other languages at this critical age, as they convey universal messages."
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