Several features explain why this approach is so effective.

1) We all learn better by attaching new learning to something we already know. Here the child’s own thoughts, feelings, and the words they use to express them are the basis for this approach.

2) We’re capitalizing on the way a child learns — naturally. All along, the child is born with the desire to copy what the see us doing and the ability to absorb the information and develop the skills needed to do that. We do not show them how to absorb and how to copy us. We simply model something interesting to them that has meaning for them. We see that especially clearly with speech. Here, the only difference with print is that we’re doing it more intentionally than we do with other things. See A Natural Approach To Learning and Mirror Learning to Speak.

3) Interest is a powerful magnet for skill development. Here we’re tying everything on the child’s special interests, and heightening that interest by having someone special initiate the activity.

4) We’re immersing the child in the whole process of communicating through print. We’re not breaking reading and writing down into their separate skills, “teaching” them to the child and hoping they’ll put them back together again.

5) We’re giving them to do — not something to learn. We’re having them write their own books, help compose texts and emails, and “read” their work to others. So their efforts have a purpose beyond learning to master skills. In this, we’re following the advice of the renowned thinker and educator, John Dewey: Give the child something to do…not something to learn. If the doing…demands thinking, learning naturally results. 

6)  We’re trusting the child to be able to unconsciously absorb what we’re modeling for them. And we’re allowing them the time they need to do it. With this, we’re acting on the extremely valuable advice of the popular educator, Maria Montessori.