| Children today are often over scheduled. Between | | | | There have been numerous studies, which |
| school time, various adult directed "enrichment," | | | | suggest that promoting auditory literacy increases |
| activities, and the demands of homework even | | | | a child's ability to learn foreign languages and also |
| those in the early grades of kindergarten through | | | | play musical instruments. This was certainly the |
| third, have very little free time left for day | | | | case with my own children, and those of my |
| dreaming and independent play. As important as | | | | friends and acquaintances who were also raised |
| school is for the learning of reading, writing and | | | | either without, or with a severely limited amount |
| arithmetic as well as social skills, because most | | | | time spent in front of the television or watching |
| children's main interaction with adults involves an | | | | movies. |
| adult telling them what to do, they are growing up | | | | Just as children need to develop their auditory |
| with a diminished ability to deal with undirected | | | | literacy, and visualizing ability through listening to |
| time. | | | | short fairy tales, they also need to be allowed |
| This inability to be self-directing leaves them | | | | more unstructured self-directed time, so that |
| unsure of what to do when they have to | | | | they may learn to exercise their imaginations |
| entertain themselves. Thus after their child has | | | | through, free play and even daydreaming. |
| spent a very short time playing alone, mothers | | | | Providing a child with blank books (not coloring |
| and fathers often hear the complaint, "I'm bored." | | | | books) and papers of various colors and sizes to |
| The busy parent, who is also often over | | | | paint and draw on, gives them tools with which to |
| scheduled, will at this point, offer the suggestion | | | | create. Items such as cardboard boxes, duct |
| that their child watch a little television or a | | | | tape, glue, wood scraps, and whatever other |
| children's movie. All this adult direction, coupled | | | | imagination stimulating objects we can collect, are |
| with the visual images supplied by television and | | | | vitally important for the development of a child's |
| or movies, results in the loss or delayed | | | | independence and imaginative abilities. These |
| development, of a child's independence, auditory | | | | abilities form the core of all leadership and |
| literacy, imagination and creativity. | | | | inventions. |
| If the pictures a child might create in his or her | | | | The development of these skills may not be very |
| imagination, by listening to a short fairy tale or | | | | important if you want your children to be able to |
| story are usurped by adult generated images, the | | | | be one in an army of workers. However, these |
| child's ability to visualize is either not able to | | | | skills are necessary if our children are to be fully |
| develop fully, or is lost through lack of use. | | | | prepared to meet the requirements of the |
| When my children were young they spent hours | | | | twenty first century. If we want our children to |
| listening to short fairy tales on cassette tapes | | | | thrive, they must have the ability to communicate |
| created by their father and myself. As a result | | | | with people of other cultures and backgrounds, |
| they both were far ahead of their peers in terms | | | | and they must know how to make their way in a |
| of vocabulary development, comprehension and | | | | world where self-direction, resilience, creative |
| musical ability. | | | | thinking, and resourcefulness are paramount. |