Get Your Children To Read In 2022 - Put In A Reading Movie – Subtitles Activate Cognitive Elements Of The Brain
Today, children are more interested in television, video games and chatting on the Internet than they are in reading. Many parents probably would say, in fact, that getting a child to pick up a book is a significant challenge.
According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Education and it’s roughly the same in the UK, children spend an average of four to six hours daily watching TV or movies. That doesn’t mean, however, that screen time has to be wasted time. Parents can use TV programs and movies to their advantage – and actually get their children to like reading.
The UK learning alliance have assisted in children’s learning for decades. A large number of television programmes have been developed to help children improve their reading, vocabulary and comprehension skills by watching the television screen. Many programmes, use a technology called adding captions that makes each word appear on the screen as it is spoken.
Some Programmes even take it one stage further and the words appear out of the mouths of the speakers in real-time, with no disruption to the flow of the movie. These are called "Action Captions" and are believed to activate the cognitive elements of the brain so that the development of both reading and spoken language skills takes place naturally.
The idea behind Reading Movies with regular subtitles or "action captions" is that kids will develop their reading skills more effortlessly – and at least partly, without even knowing it.
“When I first put the Reading Movies in, my kids sat down in front of the TV to view it and I was in awe,” said Annetta Jones, an educator and reading specialist in Florida. “They became so caught up in the entertaining action of the movie that they did not even realize that they were reading out loud.”
Reading Movies are based on such timeless classics as “The Trojan Horse,” “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” and “Tales of Gulliver’s Travels.” There are many Disney sing along movies and Thomas the Tank Engine Programmes that also use words on screen to a great advantage.
The movies and programmes have proven to help children at all reading levels reinforce vocabulary and related concepts. In fact, a single Reading Movie can be used again and again over a period of years to develop different sets of skills.
“With an approach such as this, I see a world where parents might say, ‘Stop hanging around playing, go and watch a movie; you need to improve your reading,'’ These are the words of Ronald Brown, a professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Sunderland in England.
There are some golden favourites that have stood the test of time and are still as enjoyable today as ever. Classics like Tot's TV, Rosie & Jim and Spot The Dog are to name but a few all specially designed to aid in the learning and social education of our little ones.