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Creativity and imagination are premium qualities that all parents want their children to have. Creative people can solve business problems, create scientific advances, write books and songs and become leaders in many areas. They are the architects of culture and therefore are highly prized. Children's literature author Conrad Blomberg believes that reading to your child is vital to developing creativity and imagination. "Most parents intuitively know that creativity is valuable, but they may not know an easy way to enhance this ability in their children," Blomberg says. "Science has now validated that reading aloud for only 30 minutes a day - and doing this with consistency - is 1 way to reach this goal." This simple method is based on leading scientists' solid work at well-known research facilities. Magnetic resonance imaging machines can look into the brain and indicate where activity is taking place. Researchers have mapped the brain extensively, which enables them to pinpoint the center for creativity and imagination. Thus when activity centers in this place, new synapses are created in young brains. Synapses are the connections between brain cells. We have billions of these necessary connections in our brains. Young people need to form synapses and then use these connections repeatedly to strengthen them as they grow and mature. Reading aloud to children creates new synapses and reinforces old ones. Starting around age 11, some brain cells begin to die and disappear. This is a natural process necessary to prune myriad weak connections that youngsters have formed. It also institutes order in the young brain. It is important to make as many strong synapses as possible while humans are young. All unused cells do not fade away immediately - the process can take several years - but this mechanism is inevitable. Cells that are not connected by synapses or that are only weakly connected will disappear. Three prestigious organizations have strongly recommended that parents read to their children from birth onward. The U.S. Department of Education, the National Education Association and the American Academy of Pediatricians all agree. Perhaps the strongest recommendation comes from pediatricians. They say that unless you read to your child for 30 minutes a day, your child is not healthy. "Teachers can't do it all, although we try," says Carla Burneson, a third- and fourth-grade literacy teacher. "Reading to your kids at home is a strong reinforcement for what goes on in school. Your kids can only benefit from such an outstanding ongoing activity." Blomberg has zeroed in on these recommendations. He has written 7 children's novels that are tailored to this concept and he has read them aloud to hundreds of students in many classrooms. "I write books that are tailored to this task," Blomberg says. "All my books are in chapters that can be read in about 30 minutes. Thus parents have a convenient stopping point." Blomberg's books enable parents to spend 30 minutes a day reading to their children, which meets the recommendations of leading national organizations. The time spent reading to your children will inevitably increase their creativity and imagination by allowing them to create a "mental movie" of what they hear. To learn more about Blomberg's books and reading to your child, visit www.newadventurebooks.com. This article was supplied by featuresource.com. |
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