How Children Respond to Literature

Learning and Child Development:
Children that enjoy to read is related with their development. When a child is born they are born with many capabilities such as the ability to organize, classify, and impose order on the environment. Learning is not a result of development but development itself. Vygotsky believed that linguistic, social, emotional, and cognitive development are complementary processes that work together to shape a child's literacy growth. To advance cognitive development in the classroom teachers should do activities having the students interact by having discussions about a book.

Children responses based on background and experiences:
Children that have different background and experiences than another child may have a different taste in books. This all depends on the child's interests, age, background experiences, and culture. Every time a child reads a book they take meaning away from that book, what kind of meaning the child gets out of the book all depends on the child. Children and adults take away different things when reading books. Children respond to books depending on what book it is that they are reading, for example if they are reading a book that they have no interest in then they may not take away any meaning from it. If a child is reading book for pleasure they are more likely to connect to the book and start to feel emotions for characters in the book. For children to be academically successful they must learn to read and respond thoughtfully to assigned literature.