Have you ever watched story time in an elementary classroom or school library? The teacher or librarian sits perched on the edge of a chair that appears to be floating in a sea of wiggling semi-seated bodies, as each child strains to get a closer position. Are you observing a warm fuzzy moment in elementary education or targeted instructional minutes?

Brain research suggests that you may be observing both. Story time in an elementary classroom provides students with a window to literacy. Students see the translation of words on a page into thoughts and actions, while hearing adept decoding and fluency skills in practice. With the discovery of mirror neurons in the brain, watching and experiencing reading fluency may be a key component to literacy instruction. The mirror neuron system allows a human being to mimic the actions of others by reacting to the observation of the action in the same manner as if the person actually is doing the action.

“When our brain acts after observing the actions of others, neurons in the premotor area have activated our actual motor cortex. The more attention someone gives to an act of observation, the more likely that person will copy the behaviour they see.”  Danielle van Versendaal

In other words, story time gives emergent readers a chance to simulate the reading experience of making meaning from text without the added cognitive drain of decoding. Fluency, and inflection are patterned and the experience is stored for future reading events. Reading to kids really does make a difference.