The NY Times has a great article up which explores, yet again, the kids vs. technology debate. I feel like many of these articles lack a certain nuance on the issue. It’s like those old ‘is TV good or bad?’ stories. Some television programs truly are educational, entertaining and worth watching. Others are trash. And of course, if watching television is ALL you or your child do, then that’s not so good because you’ll be missing out on other things.
So it is with eBooks and kids. Some of them may be useful. I don’t see any problem loading up a tablet with some picture books to take on vacation, for instance. And once a child hits chapter book age, I would happily get them their own e-ink Kindle if they were so inclined. But the article points out, correctly, that any debate on the kids eBook issue has to differentiate between ‘book time’ and ‘tablet time.’ If your child is using a tablet truly to read on, that’s a different mental and educational process than if they are using it to ‘play’ with an interactive ‘book app’ type thing. From the article:
“In a 2013 study, researchers found that children ages 3 to 5 whose parents read to them from an electronic book had lower reading comprehension than children whose parents used traditional books. Part of the reason, they said, was that parents and children using an electronic device spent more time focusing on the device itself than on the story (a conclusion shared by at least two other studies).”
The benefit of reading to children, according to the article, is the interaction between the child and the grown-up. There is nothing wrong, per se, with letting a child ‘play’ with a book app. But you should be clear that that’s what it is you are doing. If what you want to do is actually read to them, then you need a story that lets you interact more with the kid than the medium. I do think there is nothing about that idea which stops you from choosing an eBook over a paper copy if that’s your preference. But if you want the pure reading experience, you should perhaps choose a plain-vanilla non-appified eBook that lets you just focus on the reading.
