All about reading paper books vs e-books to your child
While there is no denying that reading to your baby has benefits there is a big difference between reading paper books and e-books to your child.
E-books have become a more popular choice among kids, but how do e-books compare to traditional storybooks with pages and illustrations? We take a look…
A new study published by the journal Pediatrics suggests toddlers who read from a screen are less likely to interact with their parents than those who sit with a traditional book. Researchers from the University of Michigan had parents read similar stories to their two-and three-year-olds in different formats: a traditional print book, a basic electronic book on a tablet, and a more enhanced electronic version with animation and sound effects. The interactions were videotaped, looking at the verbal and emotional interaction. The printed books generated more interaction between the parents and children and created more dialogue as the images and story were discussed. “The tablet itself made it harder for parents and children to engage in the rich back-and-forth turn-taking that was happening in print books,” commented the researchers.
Early brain development
Dr Perri Klass, a fellow lover of books and words, is a journalism and paediatrics professor at New York University and the national medical director of Reach Out and Read, a literacy organisation that works through doctors and nurses to promote parents reading aloud to young children. The organisation believes language-rich interactions between parents and young children help to stimulate early brain development. Dr Klass was quoted as saying in a column for the New York Times, that “Written language will be only more important in our children’s lives as the world becomes more and more networked, in the largest written-word-based community that has ever existed”. She adds: “Our children will grow up to depend on their facility with reading and writing in their jobs, their personal relationships, their ability to access information and news, and their participation in civic discourse at every level. We must help them into a world of written language in many modern manifestations.
