Christmas WS's!
Apparently new technologies aren’t always the best to use in teaching our kids to read. A study from Temple University prompted the NY Times to write an article about the negative effects of parents reading to their kids on eBooks/iPads. According to the study, children reading with parents from digital rather than physical books are not getting much interaction about its content.
Observing videos of parents reading to their kids from traditional books and then digital devices, the researchers found that parents reading from physical books would regularly ask questions about the story or that related to their kids lives, such as “what do you think will happen next?” That conversation disappears when using digital devices, when parents focus more on how to use the device, such as “Push here. Hold it this way.”
My take-away from this, though, is not a reflection on the kids, but the parents. If the parents were more comfortable with reading on their iPads, and more importantly, more comfortable with their kids using their digital devices for reading, wouldn’t the conversation flow the same as with a traditional book?
