If drumming moral standards into children does not work, singing and reading to them might do the trick, according to paediatrician and children's songwriter Alvin Chan Yee-shing. 'Children learn by listening and they select what they want to hear,' Dr Chan said at the launch of the Hong Kong Parents' Book Club recently. To get the message across in a way that guarantees they listen - from brushing teeth before bed, washing hands before meals, and learning to tell the difference between right and wrong, parents could try telling children stories, Dr Chan said. Parents could create their own stories at any time and anywhere, and could even sing to their children, he said. 'You can tell a story while you are in a traffic jam or you can make one up while you're glancing through the newspaper.' One mother at the meeting agreed that teaching children moral codes should not always be a question of 'don't do this and don't do that'. She said she preferred the indirect method, where she used her imaginative powers through story-telling in order to deal with the daily problems of teaching her children. Dr Chan said parents could always repeat stories because children responded well to repetition, which was also a concrete way of reinforcement. Chairman and author Irene Yim Ng Seen-ha said she was delighted to launch the club, which had been set up by a group of professionals who specialised in children's books, library science and education.
