Kids Online eBooks: Don't Overlook Their Importance

Importance of Reading

Reading to your child is one of the most important things you can do to prepare your child for school. The foundation for instilling early learning success begins as a baby. The sooner you begin reading regularly to your baby the better off s/he will be.  Reading to your baby helps in the following ways:

     o  develops a closeness between the parent and child

     o  elevates the importance of books to children in a fun way

     o  is great for setting up a bedtime routine that the baby will eventually recognize and follow

     o  helps growing babies to understand how books work with pictures and turning pages

     o  is a fun activity involving interaction between the book, child, and parent

As a baby gets older, s/he has learned to look forward to this time of closeness and adventure. Reading books helps children to understand the alphabet, communication through print, and the characteristics of written language.1   By the time the child reaches two, children who have been read to regularly show better language understanding, have larger vocabularies, and show higher cognitive abilities than other children. 2 Furthermore, continued parent-child reading during the preschool leads to increased reading achievement in elementary school and an increased enthusiasm for reading and learning.3

Reading eBooks Online

The best place for a child to learn how to read is in your lap with a book.  There is no better first learning experience than this.  However, as your child gets older, exposing him/her to other reading mediums can be very valuable.  The Internet is full of games, coloring pages, videos, and e-books where your child can enhance his/her reading ability.  Age three and higher is recommended for children using the Internet.  Their cognitive abilities are more operable as well as their potential in maneuvering the mouse. 

 Reading eBooks is beneficial because they:

      o  provide children with an interactive experience though sound, movement, turning pages, etc.

     o  enhance the reading experience by hearing different voices read to them

     o  improve hand-eye coordination as they follow the screen and click the previous and next page buttons 4

     o  help initiate kids to the computer – where they will be spending most of their time in the future

     o  often provide a twist on a familiar story making an old story new again

     o  prepare children for the very possible future of online libraries – which will compliment physical libraries but     

        provide more convenience and a 24/7 experience

     o  “bring added dimensions to the learning environment when used in an appropriate context.” 5

You may have read about the popularity of eReaders.  Amazon’s Kindle and Sony’s eReader are the big players in this market.  These readers can hold a lot of books and the clarity of the print they project is pretty amazing.  It really does seem as if you’re reading an actual printed book.  Nonetheless, their future growth is unpredictable – much like GPS systems.  These stand alone devices can become inconvenient when a person needs to tote around their laptop, GPS, E-Reader, cell phone, etc.  The future is in multi-bundled devices – such as the iPhone.

With  the advent of the touch screen, there are numerous possibilities for books and how children interact with them.  Children are being raised with computers, Gameboys, Nintendo DS’s, playing with their parents iPhone or cell phones, etc.  They love playing with these gadgets.  Why not enhance their reading experience with the interactivity and entertainment these devices provide children?  It’s the best of both worlds.  iPhones and other multimedia phones can already hold thousands of mp3’s and pictures – eBooks are the next logical step.

Interactive eBooks are sure to be big due to:

      o  their instant accessibility (once downloaded)

     o  condensed format – no more lugging heavy books around

     o convenience – whether stretching out on the sofa or sitting on a plane – you can now read anywhere

     o  entertainment value to kids

     o  increases kids’ independence if the eBook has audio narration – the whole story can be read or the child can click on single unknown words  

     o   multimedia experience – increasing learning through sight, sound, and interactivity with theclick of a mouse

     o  some eBooks offer online quizes after the book is over to help children with their reading comprehension.    This is key because it helps prepare children for education standards later in their schooling.  They will be tested not on how well they read but on how well they understand what they read.

 My SQUEEZE on e-books:

I highly recommend engaging your child in eBooks and online activity.  However, in no way do I advise allowing eBooks to replace the traditional book reading experience.  eBooks offer a new exciting way for kids to enjoy books and interact with them in a way that is not possible with traditional books.

At my little girl’s school, they utilize an Accelerated Reader (AR) program which assesses whether or not a child has read a book. AR is a progress monitoring software assessment tool used by primary and secondary schools for monitoring the practice of reading.6  It helps teachers assess their students’ comprehension rates and grade reading level.  AR is used by more than 75,000 schools nationwide.  My daughter reads books at home and then takes her AR test the next day at school.  She is already learning to use the computer to take quizes on the books she reads.  She started taking these tests in Kindergarten!  When I took my GRE (Graduate Records Examination) test to enter graduate school – nearly 10 years ago – it was all computer based – which included reading comprehension.  There’s no doubt in my mind that our children will read more things and be evaluated online as technology progresses.

If you’d like to pursue eBooks further, here are some links for you to view.  I noticed that most free sites are limited in their offerings and interactivity.  Nonetheless, they provide for a good introduction to reading eBooks online. 

      o StarFall – Short stories for beginning readers

      o StarFall – Beginners – online text with audio or emerging readers

     o BBC Childrens stories  Popular kids shows in England

I have recently been given the opportunity to review a children’s eBook retailer online.  Stay tuned.  I will be posting my review of their site shortly.  UPDATE:  I reviewed the site Wizz-e.com, see my post here, entitled, ” eBooks Review:  Wizz-e.com.” 

Remember, reading to your children – or having them read themselves – is an important daily habit to continue.  Experts recommend a minimum of 15 minutes a day.  Fifteen minutes a day can pay big dividends for a lifetime of learning.  Enjoy this reading time with your kids, they grow so fast, as you already know.

Lori

1  Armbruster, B., Lehr, F., and Osborn, J. (2002). “Teaching Our Youngest: A Guide for Preschool Teachers and Child Care and Family Providers.” Early Childhood Task Force. Us Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Available: http://www.ed.gov/teachers/how/early/teachingouryoungest/index.html

2  Raikes, H., Pan, B.A., Luze, G.J., Tamis-LeMonda, C.S., Brooks-Gunn, J., Constantine, J., Tarullo, L.B., Raikes, H.A, Rodriguez, E. (2006). “Mother-child bookreading in low-income families: Correlates and outcomes during the first three years of life.” Child Development, 77(4).

3  Kuo, A.A., Franke, T.M., Regalado, M., and Halfon, N. (2004). “Parent Report of Reading to Young Children.” Pediatrics, 113(6), pp. 1944-1951.

4  http://www.teaching-children-to-read.net/benefits-of-reading-to-children.html

5 Abbott, W. & Kelly, K. (2004). Sooner or later! Have e-books turned the page? Library Papers. Posted

through ePublications@Bond University. Retrieved from https://epublications.bond.au/library-pubs/5

6 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Reader