One of the efforts to make reading interesting in early childhood is the "Stuffed Toy Staying Party".A collaborative research group of lecturer Yoshihiro Okazaki of the Graduate School of Education, Okayama University investigated children's reading activities before and after the staying party, and revealed that the staying party promotes children's reading activities.

 The "Stuffed Toy Staying Party" started around 2006 at an American library.I took my favorite stuffed animal from the children overnight, took a picture of the stuffed animal reading a picture book at the library, and told the child who came to pick up the stuffed animal, "The stuffed animal was reading a picture book. By handing over the pictures and picture books, children will be able to feel closer to the picture books and libraries.

 It started around 2010 and has become popular in Japan, but in fact, it has not been verified whether the overnight party contributes to improving children's reading activities, and the effect has not been clarified.Therefore, in order to scientifically verify the effect of the staying party, the joint research group of Professor Okazaki investigated whether reading activities would change before and after the staying party for 3 kindergarten children aged 5 to 42 years. ..

 As a result, before the staying party, only two children read aloud the picture book to the stuffed animal, but on the day when the stuffed animal was returned to the children, 2 children read aloud to the stuffed animal. It was found that active reading activities increased.On the other hand, three days after the staying party, the number of children reading aloud decreased to four, and it became clear that the duration of the effect was as short as about three days.However, one month after the staying party, when the children were reminded of the episode of the staying party, the number of children reading aloud before and after that increased again.

 From this experiment, it can be expected that the overnight party will play a bridging role in the transition from early childhood, when adults read picture books, to the spontaneity of children's reading activities, which is necessary when entering elementary school. It is also expected that by letting them experience a staying party and effectively reminding them of episodes, they will activate reading activities in early childhood and help children solve their reading habits.The research results were published in the scientific journal "Heliyon" on February 2017, 2.

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