Jj is for Jottings 99. Print Books are Better than Digital Books for Toddlers.
The question of whether print books are better than digital books for toddlers is a concern for many parents who are looking to do the best by their children. Here are two pieces of evidence, one anecdotal and one from research, which will answer this question.
A TEACHER’S EXPERIENCE OF PRINT BOOKS VS. E-BOOKS.
A pre-school teacher with 17 years of experience of reading to children (and a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education) decided to try reading an e-book to her students. It was a failure. She found that the children did not retain the information in the book when compared with a print book (‘real’ book). When she asked questions about the story after she had read it to them, they couldn’t answer. This had not been the case when reading a printed book. She also found that the children were eager for her to move on to the next page and they didn’t seem to interact at all with her as the reader. Clearly these were signals that she should go back to reading to her students from physical books instead.
Print books are better than digital books for toddlers – here is the perfect situation. Thomas is cuddled on his Dad’s lap and both are fully engaged in reading, listening and talking about the story.
RESEARCH INTO PRINT BOOK VERSUS DIGITAL BOOKS.
A study was published in March 2019 in the Journal Pediatrics (sic. See article on why that spelling is inaccurate here). Researchers at the University of Michigan asked 37 parents to read similar stories to their 2- to 3-year-olds in three different formats:
- a print book
- a basic electronic book (no bells or whistles) on a tablet
- an enhanced electronic book with animation and/or sound effects (eg. tap a sea gull or a dog and hear the sounds they make).
The researchers videotaped and coded the interactions in each parent/child pair. They looked at the number and kinds of verbalizations by parents and by children. This included the amount of interactive reading. They also looked at the general emotional tenor of the interaction.
RESULTS.
- Reading print books together generated more conversation between parent and child (“What’s happening here?” “Remember when you went fishing with Dad?”)
- There were more signs of non-verbal bonding between the pairs with a print book.
- Children were very susceptible to the distraction of the electronic enhancements. More bright, flashing colours, more music and noises seemed to produce a desire to move things along faster. This led to children swiping through the story without taking the time to absorb the information.
- Even the basic e-book with no bells or whistles distracted the toddlers. They had less engagement with their parents when the story was on a tablet. It seems that 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.
- Using the tablet resulted in some negative interaction between parents and children. There were struggles over who got to control the tablet, and negative comments like “Don’t touch that button”. This somewhat undermined what is meant to be a positive bonding experience.
WHAT ABOUT ELECTRONIC STORIES WITH NO PARENT PRESENT?
Electronic readers which read a story to the child without a parent present completely cut out all the benefits of language interaction and the ‘warm, fuzzy’ experience that comes from reading together. There is absolutely no contest here. The parent is in the unique position of being able to pick up on the child’s responses and produce the most appropriate way of enhancing the conversation – absolutely tailored to that child in that moment. Parents are also able to bring up shared memories to further enhance the language and emotional aspects of the experience.
For more about the benefits of reading with your children, even beyond the time when they can read for themselves, see here.
Having said that, an electronic story-reading is better than no story at all.
E-BOOKS AND ADULTS.
Just a quick note on this one: A 2014 study that found adult Kindle users absorbed a significant amount less of what they read when compared to their physical book reading counterparts. That’s worth knowing.
CONCLUSION.
Research is clearly telling us that young children are better off having stories read by real people from print books. Parents or other adults with close involvement in the children’s lives are the very best, since they are able to draw on children’s own experiences and interests to best tailor language interaction to each child. Given that managing screen time is a concern for many parents because they are aware of the effects of screen time on their children, reading physical books has the immediate effect of cutting out potential time spent in front of a screen.
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