chil lit

Teaching Young Children Self-regulation through Children’s Books Patricia M. Cooper 1,2 Today’s emphasis on using children’s literature as a tool to teach reading and writing sub- skills distracts teachers’ attention from looking to children’s books for their historical role in helping children navigate the intellectual, social, and emotional terrains of childhood. This article argues, first, that early childhood educators must remain fluent in the use of literature that supp orts youn g chil dren’s psyc hoso cial deve lopment. Secon d, teachers mus t esta blis h criteria for choice. By way of example, it examines two popular books for young children, Sendak’s (1963) Where the Wild Thing s Are [New York: Har perColli ns Publ ishe rs] and Shannon’s (1998) No, David ! [New York: Blue Sky Press] Three theoretical perspectives guide the ana lys is . The firs t combin es Dew ey’ s (1938 /97) [Ex per ien ce and edu cat ion. New York:Touchstone] impetus for learning and Vygotsky’s (1978) [Mind in society. Cambridge: Harvard University Press] theory that learning precedes development through scaffolded social interaction. The second is Erikson’s (1950, 1985) [Childhood and society. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.] theory of psychosocial development in light of the 4–6-year- old’s drive towards self-regulatio n, control, and independence. The third is Rosenblatt’ s (1978) [Th e rea der , the text, the poe m. Ur bana, IL: Natio nal Counc il of Tea che rs of Eng lis h] transactional nature of reading. KEY WORDS: early childhood education; books for young children; criteria for choice; 4–6 year olds; Erik Erikson; scaffolded learning; psychosocial development; self-regulation; Where the Wild Things Are; No, David!. TEACHING SELF-REGULATION THROUGH CHILDREN’S BOOKS Freshman in college: ‘‘Una, how are you? I haven’t seen you in a long time.’’ Three-year-old cousin: ‘‘Why (not)?’’ Fres hma n in coll ege: ‘‘Well, I don’ t live here any- more. I go to college now.’’ Three-year-old cousin (sighing): ‘‘We’re all growing up.’’ Overheard at Family Gathering Und oub tedly, the 3-year -ol d quoted abo ve kno ws about growing up because ‘‘You’re a big girl (or boy) now’’ constitutes the background noise of every tod- dl er’s li fe. It is al so li kely that sheknow s about gr owing up from children’s literature. The fact is books for the very young often focus, directly or indirectly, on the singular truth of ear ly childh ood : it does not las t. Nex t, when they are a little older, they will learn that middle childhood does not either. As the openi ng line to Barrie’s (1911) classic makes very clear, ‘‘All children, except one, grow up’’. Its title character, Peter Pan, is the lone exception that proves the rule. If growin g up is esse nti all y unavoi dab le, the n chi ldr en’s lit erature is an unp aral lel ed ass et to the 1 Department of Teaching and Learning, New York University, 239 Greene Street, New York, NY 10003, US. 2 Cor res pon de nce sho uld be directed to Pat ric ia M. Cooper, Department of Teaching and Learning, New York University, 239 Greene Street, New York, NY 10003, US; e-mail: [email protected] Early Childhood Education Journal, Vol. 34, No. 5, April 2007 ( Ó 2006) DOI: 10.1007/s10643-006-0076-0 315 1082-3301/07/0400-0315/0Ó 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.

chil lit

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