Hair-Pulling Hurts!

HAIR-PULLING HURTS! is designed to be used as a literacy tool for beginning readers. It is best suited for children between the ages of 3 to 5 years old. It contains many word repetitions to aid word retention. Its simple, delightful illustrations are engaging. It shows children how useful their fingers are but emphasizes that using them for hair-pulling is unacceptable.

HAIR-PULLING HURTS! is well suited for children between the ages of 3 and 5 years old. Its topic of hair-pulling is very interesting and its simple, delightful illustrations are very engaging. It shows children how useful their fingers are and encourages them to think about the many ways they can use them. However, it emphasizes that using fingers for hair-pulling is unacceptable behavior. But the primary purpose of HAIR-PULLING HURTS! is to promote early literacy: the overwhelming use of word repetition throughout the book is an attempt to aid word retention. 

Kamla Williams is an emergent literacy advocate who holds a BA in English Language & Literature with Education (Hons) and an MA in English. She believes that the teaching of reading should begin even before formal schooling. From her research, she has found that when children are exposed to the printed word at a very early age, they are less likely to become struggling readers.

Ms. Williams has written HAIR-PULLING HURTS! as an early literacy tool. It contains words that are already in the child's speaking vocabulary, many of which are repeated as much as 21 times. As word repetition aids word retention, after a few readings, providing that the words are being pointed to while being read, the child is likely to retain these words as sight words.