What about that rich back-and-forth turn-taking that was happening in print books . . . a print book, with a young child, may be a better piece of technology, if the goal is dialogue and conversational turn-taking
Reading to Your Toddler?
Print Books Are Better Than Digital Ones
By Perri Klass, M.D.
In a a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics, researchers at the University of Michigan asked 37 parents to read similar stories to their 2- to 3-year-olds in three different formats (the order was varied for the different families):
- a print book
- a basic electronic book (no bells or whistles) on a tablet
- an enhanced electronic book with animation and/or sound effects (tap a sea gull or a dog and hear the sounds they make).
The interactions were videotaped and coded, looking at the number and kinds of verbalizations by parents and by children, at the amount of collaborative reading that went on, and at the general emotional tenor of the interaction.
Reading print books together generated more verbalizations about the story from parents and from toddlers, more back and forth “dialogic” collaboration. (“What’s happening here?” “Remember when you went to the beach with Dad?”)
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Third grade in school is the pivotal year when children are expected to achieve full fluency as readers.
