As a 0-year-old baby has experienced, what kind of reading ecosystem has Finland created for children?

2017-10-15 10:13 Reading/Library

A 0-year-old child can chew books and read to his heart's content in the public library.

A primary school student can read at will without any restrictions on occasions, postures and books.

Wen Dan, a Shanghai teacher studying education in Finland, took his son to experience the reading ecology of Finland first-hand. Why is Finland called a paradise for readers?

Xiaojue tore the book into pieces again, leaving the pages all over the floor. For him, the book is just a "thing", a real "thing" like a spoon, wood, toys, and water glass. Take it and bite it first, oh, it turns out that the paper tastes like this. Pull it with your hands. , the book was broken, and he was very happy.

I understand Xiaojue. I would rather open the book with him and start a journey of discovery of the world. Let’s start with Finnish Baby’s first book.

Starting as a baby,

playing with books as toys

Xiaojue’s first book was given by the Finnish government, which is what every Finnish baby knows. The poetry picture book I own is a Finnish-Swedish bilingual board book. It came to Xiaojue along with the "baby box".

Finns’ habit of reading books really started at the age of zero. The government hopes that children will absorb the rhythm and rhythm of language from their parents' chants from an early age.

Finnish children’s reading ability often ranks first in the world in PISA tests. In life, I also feel how much Finnish people value reading.

Finland is the country with the highest density of libraries in the world. I often see Finnish parents pushing strollers or carrying their children, playing and reading in the children's area of ??the library. The library also has fixed story time every week, and parents are invited to bring their children to listen to stories.

Books for babies,

Books that really need to be played with

When I was a guest at a Finnish friend’s house, she also introduced me to baby bath books. . When taking a bath, you can hear mom and dad reading picture books, and ducks, dolphins, and boats float on the water page by page, bringing sensory curiosity to the baby and becoming a good playmate to accompany the baby in the bath.

I have tasted all the cloth books and audio books at home.

Take a bite and realize that the paper is so hard; press it and a sound will come out; hold and turn the page, you will see the green forest, and turn the page again, you will see the vast white snow.

I enjoyed the joy and surprise on his face when he opened a new world. I think this is the original fun of reading - to satisfy and stimulate curiosity.

When parents see their children interacting with a book, dancing and enjoying themselves, they must not interfere, stop or educate them. That is the most intoxicating moment for them.

What gives me a headache is the three-dimensional hole-in-the-wall book I borrowed from the library, which has overlapping "invisible patterns" inside. The 7-month-old Xiaojue can detect pattern combinations very well and can dig and dig holes, which greatly satisfies his visual curiosity.

Xiaojue was playing with books in the city library

While borrowing books, I asked the staff: "Xiaojue likes to eat very much at this stage. Why did he bite the book?" Should I pay for it? "

"I understand that our baby books often encounter this problem, so there is no need to pay for it. We have professional book maintenance personnel and he can read as much as he wants." I was very moved. The library staff arranged for dedicated personnel to repair the books without restricting infant reading.

In such a reading environment, books have truly become babies’ toys.

Psychologist David Berlyne distinguishes between two types of curiosity.

One type is called perceptual curiosity. Xiaojue's curiosity is still in the sensory curiosity stage. These first books satisfied and stimulated Xiaojue’s sensory curiosity, including visual (picture books), auditory (audio books), and tactile (Dongdong books). Books, for him, are toys for developing the five senses.

As we get older, the second type of curiosity, epistemic curiosity, becomes more important.

Reading and exploring the laws behind things, and answering the "100,000 whys" in children's hearts, can greatly satisfy and stimulate children's cognitive curiosity.

Looking back at my own childhood growth experience, it was a process of being nurtured and losing curiosity. Compared with children, why did my curiosity, creativity, and imagination slowly decline? Lost? A very important reason is that when I asked "why", my parents did not respond or even rejected me rudely. Over time, my cognitive curiosity did not receive positive feedback and did not form a virtuous cycle of "curiosity-reading-answering-new curiosity-reading-answering", so it slowly degenerated.

Curiosity, creativity, and imagination are exactly the decoding and construction abilities needed when reading. Perhaps the truth is that it’s not that we haven’t developed the habit of reading, but that after we lose our inner cognitive curiosity, we find reading boring and not fun, which makes it difficult to fall in love with reading.

What kind of objective reading environment has Finland created? What kind of reading ecology has pushed the reading ability (PISA test) of 15-year-old Finnish children to the top in the world?

Free reading in the classroom

In the corridor, three or five students were lying on the ground in a huddle, with their heads facing the center, forming a flower.

This is the scene of students reading together when I visited a Finnish primary school. I'm not used to seeing them lying on the floor reading.

The second-grade class teacher told me: “This is normal in Finland. Students in the lower grades of primary school have two free reading classes a week. Students read in school without restrictions on occasions, postures, and styles. Text-only. Students can read in the classroom, in the hallway, in the library, in the corner, anywhere they want."

Finnish primary schools have very close cooperation with local libraries. Students can go out of school and go to the city library or a nearby community library to read. Children as young as 7 years old can apply for a borrowing card, and they can borrow books from physical libraries. There are also mobile libraries that provide services specifically for schools and kindergartens.

Thoughtful borrowing system

When I went to the community library to borrow books from Xiaojue, I was not only surprised that a small community had its own library, but also admired it. Efficient and convenient borrowing system.

If there is no book you want in the library near you, just search it on the library’s website and click the mouse. In a few days, there will be an email in your mailbox telling you that this book The book is already at your nearest library or designated pick-up location. You only need to pay 50 cents for such a convenient service.

If you particularly like a book, after you renew it three times, the library's electronic system will proactively ask you if you need the library to order this book for you. Once you pay, they will purchase the book for you and mail it to your home! This is really a paradise for readers!

It is said that Finland has the highest density of libraries in the world, with more than 300 central libraries, more than 500 local library branches, 150 mobile libraries and more than 12,500 mobile library stops. A dense library network system.

There is one library for every 2,000 Finns. On average, a Finn goes to the library ten times a year and borrows 18 books. Starting in the 19th century, the vision of "being a civilized citizen" led Finns to start building a large number of libraries.

Mobile library

Bring the library to your children

Even if you live in the countryside without a library, you can still have close contact with a wealth of books , because Finland’s mobile libraries deliver books to everyone.

In Finland, mobile libraries are an important part of the library system and are very popular.

Finland’s first mobile library was launched in 1962. Today there are 150 mobile libraries and more than 12,500 stops in Finland. Even in densely populated southern Finland, mobile libraries are running within a year. The range can reach 50,000 kilometers, and even further in the north.

These mobile libraries are mostly carried by large buses. They not only provide a variety of books, magazines, newspapers and audio-visual materials, but are also equipped with reading chairs, sofas, unique leisure spaces, and even music. There is no shortage of them, and you can still enjoy different and diverse spaces in the mobile library.

It mainly serves remote communities and schools, as well as elderly people who have difficulty traveling. The number of visits is about once or twice a week. This undoubtedly puts into practice the core of Finnish people’s pursuit of fair enjoyment of cultural resources.

If children in remote areas cannot go to the library, then let the library go to the children.

This makes Finland the country with the highest library utilization in the world. Reading is not a compulsory behavior in school, but a part of life.

Inside the Finnish mobile library

Reading,

Building the foundation of high-rise buildings in various disciplines

When I was 6 months old, I met Professor Heikki Lyytinen at university. He is a professor of psychology at the university, researching dyslexia in children, and is also a UNESCO Chair Professor. In recent years, he has been committed to helping children around the world improve their literacy skills.

He said that there are two main factors leading to children’s dyslexia: “The first is biological reasons, which are caused by children’s genes. Worldwide, 5% of children have dyslexia. It is caused by biological reasons. In Finland, the number is about 3. The second type is environmental reasons, such as insufficient reading education for children, which causes children to have reading problems. From a global perspective, such children can reach 90. , including many developing countries, such as African countries. But in Finland, the number of children with dyslexia due to environmental reasons is almost zero.”

Heikki’s work is to reduce this 90% globally. Come lower and lower.

90 versus 0? I was stunned when I heard this data.

Putting away my surprised expression, I asked: "How does Finland assess children with dyslexia?".

“We have a reading ability assessment, which is a reading ability test for 4- and 5-year-old children in Finland to see if the children have the reading ability before entering primary school to cope with the subsequent learning. The local government will send Special education teachers go to every kindergarten to assess each child one-on-one, identify children who may need help, and provide timely assistance and intervention.”

You know, Finnish kindergartens have never been able to do so. In any formal curriculum, children's main activities are play, group games and free play time. There is not even a formal evaluation of children in kindergarten.

However, the government actually wants to send specialized teachers (usually a special education teacher, a psychologist, a speech therapist) to "assess reading" for children?

This reflects the Finnish educational concept of "leaving resources to children in need", and also reflects their concept of preschool education: children do not necessarily need to learn to read, but they must understand and discover early Whether the child has the ability and interest in reading, because this ability will truly affect the child's learning life.

"What should I do if I fail this assessment? Does it really mean that the child has dyslexia?" I hope Heikki will continue to answer my questions.

“It doesn’t matter if you failed, we have fun reading games to help children improve. It is GraphoGame software, which helps children learn the relationship between language and letters through interesting level-breaking games.”

Research has found that children who cannot keep up in grades 1-2 can learn the relationship between language and letters through GraphoGame software, which is more effective and takes less time to learn than one-on-one teaching by teachers.

The success of this plan lies in the timely diagnosis, assistance and intervention at the beginning of the child falling behind, and the intervention process is through enjoyable games.

If Finnish children fail to pass the reading ability assessment, they can also log on to the LukiMat education website to assist children with difficulties in reading ability and mathematics development to complete a smooth transition from kindergarten to primary school.

Finns believe that reading is the cornerstone of all subjects. Only by laying a solid foundation can we slowly build a building for learning.

Hundreds of years ago, the Finnish Lutheran Church stipulated that people must be literate before they can get married. This kind of history has invisibly taken root in Finnish values, encouraging literacy and reading.

Today, Finns have gone from poetry picture books at the age of 0 to libraries in big cities and small towns across the country, to creating small family environments and social atmosphere that encourage reading, and identifying needs through reading ability assessment as early as possible. Helping children... Every aspect of reading reflects the consideration of taking children as the starting point and creating an all-round reading lifestyle.

In this way, through reading, children fly into space and sneak into ant nests.