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It's the bedtime ritual every parent dreads - being asked to read the same book for the umpteenth time.
這是讓每個父母都頭疼的睡前慣例——被孩子央求把同一本書念上第N次。
But while the constant repetition might be mind-numbing for mum or dad, it is the best way for toddlers to learn new words, according to research.
研究指出，盡管不斷重復念同一本書可能讓媽媽或爸爸感覺頭腦麻木，但這是幼童學習新詞匯的最佳方法。
The findings suggest parents are wasting money by spending a fortune on huge book collections in the hope they will inspire their little ones.
研究結果顯示，那些為了啟迪孩子心智而花很多錢購買收藏大量圖書的父母們是在浪費錢。
Instead, a small selection of favourites such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar or The Gruffalo will achieve far more.
事實上，買上幾本孩子們最喜歡的圖書，例如《好餓的毛毛蟲》或《咕嚕牛》，收效會大得多。
Dr Jessica Horst, of the University of Sussex’s WORD Lab devised an experiment to check how quickly three-year-olds could recognise and recall six new words.
薩塞克斯大學詞語實驗室的杰西卡?霍斯特博士設計了一個實驗，以了解三歲大的幼童能多快地識別和記憶六個新單詞。
The children were visited three times in a week at their homes.
研究人員每周去這些幼童的家做三次訪問。
One group heard the same story three times back-to-back each time and another was read three different stories. All had the same amount of new words which appeared the same number of times.
其中一組幼童每次把同一個故事連續(xù)聽三遍，另一組幼童每次聽到三個不同的故事。這些故事都含有同樣多的新詞，這些新詞出現(xiàn)的次數(shù)也一樣多。
When researchers returned a week later, they found the children who heard the same story over and over had typically learned 3.6 of the new words.
當研究人員一周后回訪時，他們發(fā)現(xiàn)反復聽同一個故事的小孩通常可以學到3.6個新單詞。
Those that were exposed to a variety of stories remembered only 2.6.
那些聽不同故事的小孩只能記住2.6個新單詞。
The also noted the ‘repetition’ group learned at a faster rate than those in the ‘variety’ group.
研究人員還注意到，“反復”組的小孩學得比“多樣”組的小孩更快。
Dr Horst said: ‘We are showing that less is more, to a point. Obviously, the more times you read to a child and the more books you have will help them. But you don’t need to go crazy and buy every single Thomas the Tank Engine book. Reading the same books over and over again helps.’
霍斯特博士說：“我們的研究顯示，在某種程度上，少即是多。顯然，你給孩子念書的次數(shù)越多，你擁有的書越多，對孩子也會有所裨益。但你沒必要瘋狂地買下《火車頭托馬斯》系列的每一本書。反復念同一本書將對孩子有益。”
Previous studies have found parents spend just 49 minutes doing things with their children each day. One in three don’t read to their children before putting them to bed at night. Yet 30 minutes of one-on-one literacy sessions can improve reading age by nearly two years in less than five months.
先前的研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，父母們平均每天只花49分鐘陪伴自己的小孩。三分之一的父母在晚上安頓小孩睡覺前不給他們念書。然而，每天30分鐘一對一的念書時間在不到五個月內就能讓小孩的閱讀年齡提早近兩年。
