Reading: Printed Books vs. E-Books
Technology is developing fast. In a blink of an eye, there is an app for almost anything you can think of, from managing your finances to tracking your health status. Thus, it should come as no surprise that there are a plethora of electronic books and reading applications for children as well.
These books and apps grab the attention of the children through vibrant animations and entertaining sounds. They also boast their convenience, seeing as the “books” can literally fit in your pocket. However, as engaging and eye-catching as these e-books seem, are they really as beneficial as your good old-fashioned print books?
In a recent article written by Senior Education Correspondent, Sandra Davie for The Straits Times, she talks about the benefits of using printed books versus e-books and how each medium produced different results when used in an experiment to compare mental stimulation in children. She referenced an experiment done by Dr John Hutton, a paediatrician and clinical researcher at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, whereby he scanned the brain activity of children between the ages of 3 to 5 when reading e-books and printed books written by the same author.
In the experiment, the children listened to the printed books being read whilst complementing static images were projected on a screen. As for the e-books, the children listened to the narration which were accompanied by a fully animated cartoon.
Their findings showed that the overall brain activity of the children when presented with the printed book was significantly higher and had better connectivity results with different parts of the brain. Whereas with the e-books, children were struggling to keep up with the fast paced animation and narration.
In a separate article by the BBC news, they spoke with Dr Tiffany Munzer, lead author in a study on interactions between parents and toddlers when using e-books and printed books.
This study comprised of 37 pairs of parents and toddlers who were observed reading 3 stories presented in 3 formats, printed, basic e-books, and enhanced e-books with animations and sound effects.
The results of the study showed that the interaction between the parents and toddlers when using the e-books was less substantial as it was focused mainly on the technology, for example, telling their child not to fiddle with the volume or to wait to press the buttons
Dr Munzer then goes on to share the importance of meaningful interaction during shared reading. The communication not only aids in the development of the child’s language and literacy skills but also promotes a deeper bond with their parents or whoever they may be reading with. It all contributes to an overall more holistic growth.
The study also showed that parents asked fewer questions and discussed the storylines less when using the e-books. Similar results were noted in the former mentioned study by Dr Hutton. In both studies, the researches deduced that the e-book, due to its fanciful animations and automatic prompts, left little to the imagination and thus interfered with the parents’ ability to engage in parent-guided conversations as well as the children’s ability to use their deductive thinking to figure about the story plot.
With print, the static images allow children to use their imaginative thinking skills to complete the scenario in between each image. With the correct prompts from parents, such as asking open-ended questions, this can turn into a development of reasoning skills too.
These two studies are just a couple of examples which prove the benefits of printed books rather than e-books. The parent-led conversation portion when reading with toddlers plays a key role. Having someone there to help them relate the new content in the stories to their own experiences assists their ability to acquire knowledge and build relation skills between various aspects of their lives. Not to mention, the person-to-person interaction results in better information retention compared to that from digital media.
Thus, as convenient and eye-catching as e-books may seem, the benefits when compared to parents physically reading printed books with their child make it much less enticing. Few things can replace the childhood experience of sitting on a parent’s lap whilst flipping the pages of a storybook, and an e-book is not one of them.
If you are interested in reading any of the articles I mentioned in this post, you can find them here:
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/parenting-education/screen-or-print
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-47666948
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