Kids and Reading - Can E-books Be A Vector?

[ManosHandsOfFate]

Originally Posted by ficbot

As far as them witnessing me with it, I think they would readily understand that my ebook reader is a more grown-up 'book' the same way I used to look at my mother's boring-looking, picture-free hardbacks and understand that those were not yet books for me and that books for adults looked different than books for kids.

I hadn't thought about it like that but that's a good way to look at it.

Thanks!

[ManosHandsOfFate]

Originally Posted by GraceKrispy

My three kids are all big readers (to the point where I have to take books away from them so they can walk down a hallway or brush their teeth in under an hour), and I am a huge reader.

Ha! I remember my parents limiting me to three books a day when I was about 10 or 11 years old. Apparently I wasn't spending enough time outdoors.

[Loomings]

This is a really interesting topic. From what what I've read, they have correlated learning not only with reading but simply the presence of books in the house. Here is an article I found referencing this:

http://www.salon.com/books/laura_mil...way/index.html

My guess would be be that paper books would have an advantage. I think there is something special about using your hands to learn things. Yes, you use you hands with ereaders, but it is not a very unique tactile sensation compared to playing videogame or using a computer or TV remote, etc. In my job, I get a lot of opportunity to compare hands-on adult learning with theoretical learning and the advantage of hands-on learning is obvious. I think it's just how we evolved.

I don't have kids yet, but my plan is to get paper editions that have a lot of illustration or are "fancy" in some other way. Otherwise i will try for the ebook. I think this will work for everyone since children will be more interested in the colorful, special editions, etc. anyway.

[ManosHandsOfFate]

Originally Posted by Loomings

This is a really interesting topic. From what what I've read, they have correlated learning not only with reading but simply the presence of books in the house. Here is an article I found referencing this:

http://www.salon.com/books/laura_mil...way/index.html

My guess would be be that paper books would have an advantage. I think there is something special about using your hands to learn things. Yes, you use you hands with ereaders, but it is not a very unique tactile sensation compared to playing videogame or using a computer or TV remote, etc. In my job, I get a lot of opportunity to compare hands-on adult learning with theoretical learning and the advantage of hands-on learning is obvious. I think it's just how we evolved.

I don't have kids yet, but my plan is to get paper editions that have a lot of illustration or are "fancy" in some other way. Otherwise i will try for the ebook. I think this will work for everyone since children will be more interested in the colorful, special editions, etc. anyway.

What a great article! Thanks for finding it.

As much as I'd love to reduce clutter, I guess I won't be trying to rid myself of all my p-books any time soon.

[Pookeysgirl]

Neither one of my parents were readers, but I've always loved books, and neither one of my kids (both boys) like to read. They would rather be out running around and playing. Maybe there's still hope for the grandkids someday.

[patrickt]

I read and my children read. I think it is extremely important to read to children from the time they're born. I like to tell children, "All the secrets in the world are written in books and when you learn to read you can learn all the secrets."

All kids seem to love reading but our schools seem to take the love out of them. I suggested once that if we taught sex education the way we taught reading by the time kids reached puberty they wouldn't want to do it. Just imagine having sex in front of the class with everyone laughing.

I think it's also critically important for kids to be allowed to read what they want to read. The reason I got an ebook reader is that for twelve years I've have to read the books someone else thought we should read. Now, I get to read the books I want to read. It's the same with kids.

[DMcCunney]

Some years back, I was having dinner with a group at a Science Fiction convention. Talk at the table turned to declining literacy. I asked "How many of you had parents who read to you when you were kids?" Every hand was raised.

It made sense. My mother read to me as a child, and I got the concept well before I could actually do it myself. She recounted in later years trying to skip over parts to get me to bed and back to her chores faster, and I'd point unerringly at the skipped segment and say "No, Mommy! You missed this part!"

I've always read anything that didn't read me first, and a good bit that did, and I know where I got the habit.

I contrasted that with my SO's nephews, the sons of her older brother. Dad was a voracious reader (and an SF fan), but he didn't read to the kids. Mom wasn't a reader, and neither did she. Dad would come home from work and plunk himself in front of the TV until it was time for dinner. Guess what habit the kids picked up? (I watched the older one start to go into a trance as soon as the TV was turned on.)

Reading is a necessary skill, but too many people never learn to view it as a pleasure. Reading is a chore they do because they must, and not something they do for fun. Getting kids to read, and see reading as enjoyable, is an example parents have to set, and set early. You can sometimes count on schools to teach kids how to read. You can't count on them teaching the kids to want to.

One question raised here is the role of an ereader in the process. In the earliest phases, not much. A kid too young to read is a poor candidate for an electronic gadget. Actual physical paper books are a better fit. They're more durable, easier to replace, and turning pages is less of a challenge to developing motor skills.

As they get a bit older, you can start reading to them from a reader, and they can get the idea it's something that can be used to read. After a while, you can let them try it themselves under supervision, showing them how to select a book and read it. When they get old enough to ask for one of their own, you can start to think about getting them one. But no hurry.

First, you want them to reach the point where they want their own reader.
______
Dennis

[patrickt]

Originally Posted by ManosHandsOfFate

Ha! I remember my parents limiting me to three books a day when I was about 10 or 11 years old. Apparently I wasn't spending enough time outdoors.

Come to think of it, it might have been my father's aversion to my reading that drove me to read so much. Thanks, dad.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

One question raised here is the role of an ereader in the process. In the earliest phases, not much. A kid too young to read is a poor candidate for an electronic gadget. Actual physical paper books are a better fit. They're more durable, easier to replace, and turning pages is less of a challenge to developing motor skills.

I don't know about that. My 6 month old can turn the pages on my ereader, but she's still figuring out how to turn a paper page without ripping it right out of the book Very very colorful and durable board books are where it's at!

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

As they get a bit older, you can start reading to them from a reader, and they can get the idea it's something that can be used to read. After a while, you can let them try it themselves under supervision, showing them how to select a book and read it. When they get old enough to ask for one of their own, you can start to think about getting them one. But no hurry.

I think we, as adults who grew up with pbooks, are making too big a deal out of the "this device is a book!" idea. The child doesn't need to be 'taught' that the device can be used for reading. It's just a book to them. There is no reason to teach them that books are books and then think that they also need to be taught that this other device here is also a book -- there's no need to make that distinction. Kids are smart.

I read to my daughter now from an ereader, for short spans. She's not as interested in it as she is her shelf of pbooks because it doesn't have pictures, but she loves pressing the buttons and watching the screen flash when it changes the page. It's really no different than reading to her aloud from a big old hardback, which is what many people did for their kids 50-100 years ago. My dad didn't grow up with colorful books about Disney princesses; he read black and white illustrated 'classics'.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by ManosHandsOfFate

Ha! I remember my parents limiting me to three books a day when I was about 10 or 11 years old. Apparently I wasn't spending enough time outdoors.

That does sound familiar

[Richey79]

Very interesting topic, OP.

You'd think it would be much easier to encourage young people to read if it involves electronic devices. A lot of us like ereaders because they lack the distraction of being multi-function devices - I'm not sure many young people would choose the single-function device. I'm sure that strong young eyes won't find anything uncomfortable about back-lit screens. Wish the government would start a free library scheme that could send books directly to the smart phones most young people carry these days.

It seems to me there's a big difference between a child seeing their parents staring at an electronic device for long periods of time and the subliminal power / mysterious appeal of shelves full of books. I don't care what ebooks smell like, but it would be a little sad to think of children growing up in houses without shelves full of novels.

Best to have both, just to be on the safe side.

[queentess]

Originally Posted by Richey79

I don't care what ebooks smell like, but it would be a little sad to think of children growing up in houses without shelves full of novels.

Best to have both, just to be on the safe side.

My great grandma probably couldn't imagine me growing up without a horse and buggy, but I did.

My parents couldn't imagine me growing up with a computer and the internet, but I did. (They can't imagine me not having a house phone either, but I don't.)

I can't imagine my daughter growing up with a mobile phone, but she will.

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by queentess

I think we, as adults who grew up with pbooks, are making too big a deal out of the "this device is a book!" idea. The child doesn't need to be 'taught' that the device can be used for reading. It's just a book to them. There is no reason to teach them that books are books and then think that they also need to be taught that this other device here is also a book -- there's no need to make that distinction. Kids are smart.

I guess... but I love seeing this. I love seeing her touching the pages, and moving through the book. She'll open it, then shut it, then open it, then shut it. Our Baby Lucy loves her books.

[Ben Thornton]

It seems to me that there's a difference between exploring a large number of bookshelves, seeing them all laid out before you, and searching on a device. Going into a bookshop and seeing all the books just isn't the same as, say, logging into Amazon - despite the fact that Amazon has many more books available.

So, I'm not convinced that having a reader with 500+ books on it would give the same benefit as having 500+ books in the house (as mentioned in the article linked above). Giving over so much of your living space to books, surrounding yourself with them, speaks of their importance in a way that having them invisibly within a device does not.

Perhaps prospective parents with ereaders should cover their options by decorating a wall with 1000 paperbacks.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by queentess

I don't know about that. My 6 month old can turn the pages on my ereader, but she's still figuring out how to turn a paper page without ripping it right out of the book Very very colorful and durable board books are where it's at!

Those durable board books are made of paper...

I think we, as adults who grew up with pbooks, are making too big a deal out of the "this device is a book!" idea. The child doesn't need to be 'taught' that the device can be used for reading. It's just a book to them. There is no reason to teach them that books are books and then think that they also need to be taught that this other device here is also a book -- there's no need to make that distinction. Kids are smart.

They are. And it isn't a matter of "teaching" them. You are simply showing them something. They'll get the idea quite quickly.

But you do have to show them. There's no obvious relationship between a paper book and an ereader, and until they see you do it, young kids aren't likely to realize the latter is a device you can read with.
______
Dennis