Use technology to get your child to read, authors advise parents at Sharjah Children's Reading Festival

Sharjah: With youngsters these days hooked on to digital units, what could be a good technique to instil in them the behavior of studying at an early age? This query was posed throughout one of many panel discussions on the ongoing twelfth Sharjah Kids’s Studying Pageant (SCRF) at Expo Centre Sharjah.

Addressing dad and mom, award-winning Emirati author Nadia Al Najjar stated: “If your child loves to be on the iPad, download them books to read on their device. The medium is not important as long as they are reading digitally or listening to audio books.”

She additional stated: “What is equally important is providing children with the right book to read. If a child likes a certain animal or sport, pick a book that includes these aspects. Believe me, these things help encourage a child to read,” she emphasised. She added: “Parents must befriend technology. Another crucial element is for parents to pick books with vibrant illustrations as well as content that will resonate with their child.”

One other outstanding writer, Abby Cooper, who attended the occasion nearly from her hometown in Minnesota, United States, stated: “Step one is to get youngsters enthusiastic about studying. It's completely essential that they maintain a guide of their arms and switch its pages, even when not studying it. Kids must type a bodily reference to books and a keenness for them earlier than the phrases in them take younger readers on journeys to new locations.

Each Cooper and Al Najjar stated “another key reason why the habit of reading should be instilled in children from a young age is because stories provide children battling emotional issues to feel less isolated.”

“Letting them (children) choose their own books goes a long way in creating life-long readers out of children. It’s very important to give children a choice when it comes to reading. Whether it is the medium they are reading on, or what they are reading, giving them choice gives them ownership of the experience,” Cooper defined.

In one other session titled ‘Understanding the World’, the panelists mentioned how artwork may help youngsters acquire a greater understanding of the world and their atmosphere.

Psychotherapist Fransie Frandsen, who attended nearly from Geneva, Switzerland, stated: “Art has an immensely therapeutic effect on children as it makes them aware of themselves. This subsequently leads to building emotional intelligence. When kids draw people, they have to decide whether to make them happy or sad, they have to choose their costumes and their colours, and so on. This detailed thought process that goes into conceiving and drawing characters from the animal and human world eventually sparks the child’s empathy towards them. There are plenty of skills the young artists will develop as they start expressing themselves through art,” defined Frandsen, who's the writer of the Alexander Questions guide sequence.

Frandsen suggested dad and mom to not overly criticise youngsters’s output. “If you tell them that the horse they’ve drawn looks like a dog, that will silence a child’s creative and artistic spirit, more often than not,” she warned.

Magdy El Kafrawy, an Egyptian artist, illustrator and painter, added: “When children express themselves through art, they don’t think of boundaries; they just keep drawing. We should appreciate this undulating spirit of theirs and the artistic expressions that are born out of it.”

In the meantime, Fatma Al Darmki, an Emirati mom of three younger women, stated books with enticing and fantastically detailed art work are a giant enticement for selecting books for her daughters. “As a parent, I am interested in developing their curiosity and knowledge about the world around them, and academic-oriented books that are full of colour and packed with fun activities and games are, I believe, the right way to do it,” she defined.

Jesudas Sanjay of DC Books, an exhibitor at SCRF 2021, additionally famous: “Fun, engrossing stories that relate to childhood, or books with a mixture of text and pictures, are what generally appeals to the young ones.”

He added: “No matter what books they buy, what is really important is the fact that children are reading. And it is heartwarming to see parents bring their young ones to SCRF each year. Inculcating a love of books is the best gift for children everywhere.”

The twelfth version of SCRF will run till Could 29 at Expo Centre Sharjah. Underneath the theme ‘For Your Imagination’, 32 authors from the Arab area and around the globe will likely be talking on the SCRF platform throughout 30 literary occasions, which is able to happen in Sharjah, Kalba, Dibba Al Hisn, Dubai, Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah. A complete of 172 publishers from 15 nations throughout the globe are additionally showcasing their books and different literary materials.