PBS高端访谈:对着婴儿大声朗读有助于他们的脑部发育

 　　JUDY WOODRUFF: Finally, a new call to parents and others today about the need for routine reading to the youngest of children, and its potential effect on literacy¹, language and well-being².

　　Jeff is back with that.

　　WOMAN: Where's the duck?

　　JEFFREY BROWN: The nation's largest pediatricians group is now formally urging parents to read aloud to their children daily from infancy³. The American Academy of Pediatrics says doing so stimulates⁴ early brain development and helps build key language, literacy and social skills.

　　According to the academy, more than one in three American children start kindergarten without the skills they need to learn to read. About two-thirds of children can't read proficiently⁵ by the end of the third grade.

　　MAN: Do you want to pick a book?

　　JEFFREY BROWN: The academy is urging pediatricians to provide books to low-income families. It's also teaming with other groups, including Reach Out and Read, a nonprofit organization NewsHour education correspondent⁶ John Merrow profiled in November 2012.

　　DR. CINDY OSMAN, Pediatrician, Bellevue Pediatric Clinic: There's solid research that shows that just that intervention⁷ of handing a family a book, giving them a couple of age-appropriate pieces of advice about how to read with their kid, and just encouraging reading, they — those kids will do better in school.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: Reach Out and Read serves nearly 5,000 medical centers, and more than a third of all American children living in poverty.

　　And the lead author of the new literacy promotion⁸ report joins us now. Dr. Pamela High is professor of pediatrics at Brown University and former president of the Society of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.

　　Well, welcome to you.

　　First, start by explaining more about what you're trying to address here and how serious an issue this is.

　　DR. PAMELA HIGH, American Academy of Pediatrics: What we're addressing is that many parents in the United States don't seem to have the knowledge that there's a wonderful opportunity available to them starting very early, an opportunity for them to begin building their child's language development and to forge⁹ their own relationship with their child through reading to them on a regular basis.

　　You know, I would also say talking to them, singing with them, playing with them, all of those kinds of things.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: In some ways, confirming what we all knew or suspected? What is it about reading or being read to that — what does it do for kids?

　　DR. PAMELA HIGH: You know, what reading does for very young children is, it gives them a time when they pretty much have the undivided attention of their parents or their caregivers.

　　It's a real one-on-one opportunity for children to communicate with their parents and parents to communicate with their children. You know, we know that the more words that are in a child's language world, the more words they will learn, and the stronger their language skills are when they reach kindergarten, the more prepared they are to be able to read, and the better they read, the more likely they will graduate from high school.

　　So, children with very poor reading proficiency¹⁰ by the time they enter the fourth grade are the ones at greatest risk to not graduate from high school and then not be able to be successful — successful in their own life course, economically, for example.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: Those are the kinds of consequences that you outline in the report, in fact, right, is of economic and even health issues.

　　DR. PAMELA HIGH: Yes.

　　We frame this — we feel that the power of the experience of reading to children is really seated in the relationship between the parent and the child, that this is the way of building that relationship. And we do know from scores of information that it's really the parent-child relationship, nurturing¹¹ relationships between caregivers and children that set a positive life course.

　　And this is one medium for it, by talking with them, by exposing them to language and literacy early on, so that they're motivated, so, even if it's hard, that the child will want to work in order to learn how to read themselves, because it's not so easy for all children.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: And what exactly are you calling on doctors, people in your profession, to do? How do they — how should they incorporate¹² this into their practice?

　　DR. PAMELA HIGH: Well, actually, many pediatricians have been incorporating¹³ this into their practice now for almost 20 years.

　　It's the reason that we have a large body of knowledge that tells us the power of this intervention. And the way that we try to do it, in particular for families of lower-income status, who are the ones at greatest risk to not have this information and potentially not to have the tools either to be able to share a book with their child, is that we try to have a high-quality children's book available, so we can use it as part of the visit with the child.

　　So you can use it for a vehicle for seeing how that child is developing. For example, a 6-month-old is likely to hold on to a book, maybe to put it in their mouth and taste it, maybe to look at the pictures for a while, not pay too much attention.

　　As they get older, they start patting the pictures. By a year or 15 months, they can probably point to some of the pictures in their favorite book. As they get older than that, they may even be able to point out some letters in the alphabet or tell you the story that's in the book.

　　So the book is a vehicle for assessing how well the child is doing developmentally. It also can be a vehicle for assessing the relationship between the parent and the child. How comfortable is that child sitting in the parent's lap and sharing that book together? And if it doesn't seem so comfortable, it's an opportunity to perhaps model how to do it and show how much fun it can be.

　　JEFFREY BROWN: All right, you know what? We will continue this conversation online. And I want to ask you questions about strategies for parents. But we will stop for now.

　　Dr. Pamela High, thank you so much.

　　DR. PAMELA HIGH: Thank you.

1 literacy   

n.识字，有文化，读写能力

参考例句：

• I can't believe that he failed the literacy test.我无法相信他识字测试不及格。
• The literacy rate there is the highest in Central America.那里的识字率居中美洲之首。

2 well-being   

n.安康，安乐，幸福

参考例句：

• He always has the well-being of the masses at heart.他总是把群众的疾苦挂在心上。
• My concern for their well-being was misunderstood as interference.我关心他们的幸福，却被误解为多管闲事。

3 infancy   

n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期

参考例句：

• He came to England in his infancy.他幼年时期来到英国。
• Their research is only in its infancy.他们的研究处于初级阶段。

4 stimulates   

v.刺激( stimulate的第三人称单数 )；激励；使兴奋；起兴奋作用，起刺激作用，起促进作用

参考例句：

• Exercise stimulates the body. 运动促进身体健康。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Alcohol stimulates the action of the heart. 酒刺激心脏的活动。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

5 proficiently   

ad.熟练地

参考例句：

• Language Skills: Ability to write and speak English proficiently. 语言要求：有良好的英语读写能力。
• Although not a diplomat, he can proficiently use diplomatic terms. 他虽然不是外交官，却能熟练地使用外交辞令。

6 correspondent   

n.记者，通信者；adj.符合的，一致的，相当的

参考例句：

• He volunteered as a correspondent for the war.他自愿担任作报道这次战争的记者。
• The result was correspondent with my wishes.结果与我的愿望是一致的。

7 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

8 promotion   

n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传

参考例句：

• The teacher conferred with the principal about Dick's promotion.教师与校长商谈了迪克的升级问题。
• The clerk was given a promotion and an increase in salary.那个职员升了级，加了薪。

9 forge   

v.使形成，与...建立密切联系，伪造，假冒

参考例句：

• Everything new comes from the forge of hard and bitter struggle.一切新东西都是从艰苦斗争中锻炼出来的。
• Difficulties help to forge people into able folk.困难有助于把人们锻炼成能干的人。

10 proficiency   

n.精通，熟练，精练

参考例句：

• He plied his trade and gained proficiency in it.他勤习手艺，技术渐渐达到了十分娴熟的地步。
• How do you think of your proficiency in written and spoken English?你认为你的书面英语和口语熟练程度如何？

11 nurturing   

养育( nurture的现在分词 )； 培育； 滋长； 助长

参考例句：

• These delicate plants need careful nurturing. 这些幼嫩的植物需要精心培育。
• The modern conservatory is not an environment for nurturing plants. 这个现代化温室的环境不适合培育植物。

12 incorporate   

vt.包含，加上，吸收；把…合并，使并入

参考例句：

• Paints incorporate with oil.颜料与油混合在一起。
• We had to incorporate the company for tax reasons.由于纳税的原因，我们不得不把那家公司合并了。

13 incorporating   

组成公司( incorporate的现在分词 )； 包含； 使混合； 使具体化

参考例句：

• Wallis has developed a simplified analysis incorporating the same approximation. 威利斯曾结合同样的假设，做出了一个简化的分析。
• Incorporating unique international filter technology to give a beautiful satisfying smooth cigarette. 结合独特的国际过滤技术提供一个美丽的满足顺利香烟。