Quote:
Originally Posted by stonetools
One thing I see here is that while parents love the idea of reading books to kids, the kids themselves are gravitating to screens and apps as soon as they can figure out how to interact with touch screens ( as early as two years old according to numerous You Tube videos).
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This shouldn't surprise anyone. Interacting with pictures on a touchscreen is easy to learn and well within the mental and physical abilities of a small child. It's fun, instantly gratifying, and pretty shiny colors that move around.
The allure of having mom or dad read to you is entirely different. I learned to read sitting on my bed, curled up against one of my parents, staring at the pages in the book that they were reading to me. It was our evening ritual before I went to bed, and they did the same thing with my siblings. And trust me, it wasn't the reading itself that made the ritual important and rewarding. It was the relaxing comfort of snuggling mom or dad, while I drifted off to sleep. Listening to soothing music would have worked just as well.
Long-winded way of saying that parents who want their children to read need to read to them, and make the reading a pleasant experience that the children look forward to. Tablets are inherently fun, making books and reading fun takes a bit more work.