Opinion: When seen, children shine

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Hold a newborn a foot from your face. Talk to them. They’ll stop wiggling. Almost freeze as their eyes dance with intrigue.

Watch a toddler learn the alphabet. With your full attention, their attention in turn becomes fixated on you.

We each carry the capacity to captivate a child and cultivate their insatiable curiosity. Doing so, we “wire” them for a lifetime of success.

Infants and toddlers watch the movement of lips and placement of tongues, listening intently to mimic, recognize and remember the shape and sound of each consonant and vowel. Letter by letter, shape by shape, sound by sound. Young children produce over 100,000 new neurons each day. When stimulated, the brain can create a million connections per second. It’s a back-and-forth, watch, see and do interaction. In that process a relationship bond is seeded, grows and flourishes. When we add clapping and melodies, it becomes intoxicatingly more intriguing. Mastering the letters and sounds blossoms into singing “Now I know my ABCs.”

Eighty percent of a child’s brain is developed by age 3. It is a window of opportunity that, if missed, leaves us constantly trying to catch up. It is possible to overcome poor brain nurturing, but it is much harder, takes longer and costs more than doing it right from the start.

The thrill and reward of being able to do what an adult does motivates a child to do more. The infant brain yearns to accelerate its capacity to be like mom, like dad, like grandma, grandpa, guardian, brother, sister — like any caring and nurturing person giving them their undivided attention. When children are seen, they shine. Children’s brains, cultural identity and core values get molded in the process. Values such as empathy, motivation, curiosity and a mindset to accept challenges. Social emotional skills such as self-regulation, attention, perseverance, questioning, discernment. They learn by example. Children imitate those who surround them. The universal human’s need to belong, to be bonded, to be part of intimate, caring relationships is manifested in the attachment dance that transpires in early language development.

As the lyrics of the song at the finale of Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods” musical warn:

Careful the things you say

Children will listen

Careful the things you do

Children will see

And learn

Children may not obey

But children will listen

Children will look to you

For which way to turn

To learn what to be

Careful before you say

“Listen to me”

Children will listen

When a toddler sings the final verse, “Now I know my ABCs, next time won’t you sing with me?” their animated voice is followed by thunderous applause, accolades, hugs and delight. The toddler’s lyric begs for more bonding. That attention and reward fuels childhood curiosity. It is an infusion of Mother Nature’s most potent drug — our brain’s intoxicating, insatiable ability to learn. It is the same reward system that reinforces behaviors, habits, attitudes and beliefs that align with values, heritage and culture to forge strong individual and cultural identity.

The transformative power of this brain-developing relationship building is an invaluable investment that will reap countless rewards. Not doing it has catastrophic consequences. Not only for that child, but their families and communities, and it corrodes the economic engine of our economy.

So powerful is culture, character and language skill development that by age 3 ruinous consequences can be predicted for the future storylines of those children’s lives whose brains have not been stimulated. Reading proficiently by third grade has profound implications for social determinants of health that skew exponentially positive for those who master the skill of reading. The opposite direction for those who don’t. Failure to read proficiently by third grade for many children is a research-revealed pathway to prison.

A child’s success starts on top of our lap, not on a laptop. Success doesn’t come from a screen — it is from what is seen in the face of a caring adult whose undivided attention captivates the curiosity and unlimited capacity of a child.

Minnesota has roughly 60,000 opportunities a year to invest in our future success. That’s on average how many children are born here each year. There are more than 5 million Minnesotans over the age of 10. That’s roughly 83 laps each infant and toddler could be sitting on at any moment to learn to read. Every child deserves a lap to sit on. There is no excuse for any Minnesota child to go without one.

Several Minnesota communities are establishing Rally to Read coalitions to take action to ensure every child has an equity of opportunity to “wire” their brain to read by age 3. What kid doesn’t deserve that opportunity? Rally to Read coalitions are weaving together early childhood programs, day care providers, early literacy programs, pediatricians and libraries infused with the time, talent and treasure of civic organizations and the business, faith-based and ethnic communities. Imagine if every Minnesota community Rallied to Read. All it took was one person to say, “Let’s make it happen here.” Raise your hand and we’ll help facilitate the launch in your community.

So pull up a chair. Snuggle up. Grab a book. Place a child on your lap. Doing so seeds their success.

Tim Reardon is executive director of Minnesota’s Rally to Read. Bernadeia H. Johnson is an associate professor in the department of educational leadership at Minnesota State University, Mankato, and former superintendent of Minneapolis Public Schools. Todd Otis is a former legislator and early childhood advocate. Artika Tyner is a children’s book author and literacy advocate.