RAR #82: Why Fidgeting is a Good Sign (and what brain science has to say about reading aloud), Dr. Michael Gurian
Parents of wiggly kids–the proof is here. In this episode with author Dr. Michael Gurian, you’ll hear scientific evidence demonstrates that many kids not only need to move while being read to, they actually retain information better when they are allowed to do so.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
- why boys might prefer to read non-fiction, and why we should let them
- why we don’t need to worry about our kids reading graphic novels
- how we can help resistant kids fall in love with reading
You’ll love all the research in this episode and how it will help you to know how best to support the children in front of you.
Click the play button below:
Books from this episode:
(All links are affiliate links.)
Hello. I was just browsing through some transcripts I thought were interesting and was reading podcast #85. My eye caught a mistake that is fairly common. The word “peak” on the lower part of page 2 (at 6:25) should be “pique.” I don’t know if you can change it or are even interested in changing it, but I just wanted to let you know. Thanks for your interesting podcasts!
The transcript for the episode is actually the transcript for episode 92.
Or, you know, I managed to click on the wrong podcast. So, nevermind.
Following the advice of this episode and other times when RAR has recommended Calvin and Hobbs –I got the first one, just titled “Calvin and Hobbes,” at the library for my kids.
My 10 year old son was then asking me about magazines with sex in them. I asked WHERE he heard about that and he said the comics we’d gotten at the library today. Looking more into the book, I saw more potential questions would be what a “skimpy negligee,” about people kissing who weren’t married, about Hobbes being a boy and kissing Calvin inappropriately during a conversation about romantic kissing, about the “millions of murders” children witness on TV… WOW.
I was not ready to answer magazine-related questions – yuck. Be sure and check the specific volume of those comics that you get!
This podcast is a game-changer for us! Thank you, Sarah!
Okay so I don’t mind the fidgeting and movement but the non stop talking with siblings is what I struggle with while I read a loud. How can that be helped. The younger one gets the older ones involved as he plays. It is so hard to compete with the noise and so hard to stop it. If they play /move/fidget/work on something quietly so everyone can here that would be nice. Any tips?
This might be my favorite podcast yet. I especially appreciated the reassurance that graphic novels aren’t ruining my kiddos. ;) I’d love to hear more from Dr. Gurian and I’ll definitely be checking out his books.
Was this the episode where a list of books and movies that build character was mentioned?
Never mind. I see it!
I have ten and eight year old boys and I try to read aloud with them and their six year old sister, but it always breaks down after five minutes. I’ve tried snacks, Legos, art – nothing I do can keep them from horsing around with each other. I get that they need to move around and I’m happy to let them stand up or fidget but they end up distracting each other and they just can’t stay quiet enough to hear the words I’m saying, even though I know they want to hear them (because they pout if I send them out of the room and beg me not to read without them). Our read aloud time quickly spirals into a discipline session when it’s supposed to be the most fun part of our school day! Any suggestions?!
Did he mention a list of quality books with boy protagonists? I could use a mighty girl equivalent. I find older books with boy characters (Adventure Island by Enid Blyton, for example or Dr Dolittle) but they often have cringe-inducing cultural baggage (the way the female characters disappear every time something important is going to happen so that it is the boys alone who move the plot or in Dr Dolittle the “natives”.) The modern books I find either seem to include a LOT of toilet humor or pair a cerebral, cautios male character with a kinetic, outgoing female character (Mr Benedict, The Greatest Detective, Greenglass House) which is fine but overall I need something to balance it.
Interesting. In our house, it’s the opposite. My boys are voracious readers (at least those old enough to read, which is two right now), while our only daughter only reads works required in our homeschool and rarely reads for pleasure, despite being surrounded by books of many types and varieties. I noticed that the voracious readers (males in our home) learned to read at a high level with little effort on my part. By high level, I mean our oldest could read _The Lord of the Rings_ at age seven, with understanding, after teaching himself to read with _The Hobbit_, which he had listened to on audiobook for years after I read it aloud to him. For our daughter, for her to be able to read fluently meant doing all four levels of _All About Reading_. She can read fine, but does not enjoy it the way her brothers do. All of them probably get over an hour of read alouds per day, either from me or audiobooks. So for me it didn’t seem so related to the child’s sex, but rather how the brain processed written language on the page. My husband dislikes reading, whereas I have always been a voracious reader, so perhaps there is a genetic component as well.
Love this. My boy is always wiggling, always. I tend to get a little irritated when i am reading to him and his sister because she sits and listens while he fidgets. I thought he wasn’t listening all this time, but he can tell me what I’ve read afterward. Boys just need to move. Kids need to move.
I want to know how you find all these smart people!! :)
:)
I met Dr. Gurian at a homeschool conference last year, and was so excited to chat with him because I had read some of his books! It was such a treat to have him on the show.