By Kristen J. Amundson
“Left foot, left foot,
Right foot, right.
Feet in the morning
Feet at night.”
—”The Foot Book,” Dr. Seuss
It has been 40 years since I last read Dr. Seuss’s “The Foot Book” aloud, but I can still recite it, nearly word for word. That’s because I read it an estimated 83,492 times during my daughter’s earliest years. When kids fall in love with a particular book, they want to hear it again and again. For the grandparent reading this favorite book, it’s good to know that research into how children learn language supports these seemingly unending repetitions.
This year, National Grandparents Day will be celebrated on September 8. It’s a great day to spend time reading with your grandchildren. You will be sharing a favorite book, but you’ll also be helping your grandchild learn important reading skills. Of course, you may be sharing that book repeatedly. Researchers tell us that children learn words through repeated readings of texts. (Grandparents could tell us that as well.) As your grandkids hear words again and again, their knowledge of the word will move from never hearing it, to sounds familiar to it has something to do with, to well known. One study even showed that hearing the same words in the same story helped more than hearing the same words in different stories.
This is where “The Foot Book” comes in. (“Wet foot, dry foot, low foot, high foot,” my brain is chiming in.) Repetition helps kids learn I would tell myself as my daughter would say, “Again!” Young readers need to know how to sound out an unfamiliar word, but the more words they recognize instantly, the more time they’ll have to figure out what the text means. The ability to read quickly and accurately is one key step in becoming a strong reader.
If you stop while you are reading to discuss what you have just read, you can help your grandchild build background knowledge. “Remember when we went to the zoo and saw the lion?”
Sometimes, the story may include information your grandchild doesn’t know. See if you can learn more. Is there a TV program about alligators? Does your library have a book with pictures?
The way you read can also be a good model for your grandchild. Sometimes you may need to stop, reread, and then untangle what you’ve just read. You might say, “That long paragraph about crickets didn’t make sense to me. Let’s go back and see if we can read it more slowly to make sure we understand it.” Doing that will give your grandchild permission to do the same thing when they read something they don’t understand. And you’ll create the expectation that we read so we can understand what we have read. Read widely. This fall, as election news fills the airwaves, help your grandchildren learn more about pioneering lawmakers like John Lewis and Barack Obama by looking for biographies written just for kids. Your local children’s librarian can point you to a book that should work.
Of course, repetition is not limited to books. Ask any grandparent who has watched “Moana” for the 271st time. Kids seem to be hard-wired to enjoy things over and over. And don’t worry—eventually, new favorites will replace the old. Something else will capture your grandchild’s attention, and you’ll find yourself reading it over and over. And over.
Kristen J. Amundson is a former teacher, school board chair, state legislator, and CEO of a national education organization. This column is excerpted from her forthcoming book “The Grandparent Effect,” which will be published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2025.
