For Quality Story Time, E-Books Don’t Make the Grade

Ramp up the positive impact of parent-child story time by powering down e-readers and picking up printed books, new research suggests.

Fresh research out of the University of Michigan indicates quantity and quality of parent-toddler interaction is significantly better when parents choose print over electronic formats for shared reading time.

“Shared book reading is one of the most important developmental activities families can engage in. It promotes, a love of reading, early childhood literacy, and attachment between trusted caregivers and their children,” said Dr. Tiffany Munzer, a research fellow in developmental and behavioral pediatrics at the University of Michigan’s C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital .

“Given the lower quantity of verbalizations and quality of interactions occurring over electronic books, pediatricians may wish to continue recommending print books over electronic books for toddlers and their parents ,” Munzer added in a video abstract of the paper.

Munzer is the lead author of “Differences in Parent-Toddler Interactions With Print Versus Electronic Books.” Findings from the study appeared in the March issue of Pediatrics, the academic journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

Researchers examined video-recordings of 37 parent-toddler pairs reading three books from noted children’s author and illustrator Mercer Mayer’s “Little Critters” series.

Parents read the stories to their two- and three-year-old children in three formats. The formats included a printed book, a bare-bones electronic device, and an enhanced electronic device with features such as sound and animation.

Study findings suggest that toddlers verbalize and interact more when parents read to them from a printed book rather than a tablet.

Further, researchers noted precious time was invested in verbal interactions centering on the device itself when electronic formats were used, as AAP explained on Monday.

Examples of such interactions could include, “don’t touch that button.”

Printed books appear to more readily lend themselves to talking about the storyline or how the story related to the child’s own experiences.

Munzer says parents’ comments and questions that expand on the story’s content may “promote children’s expressive language, engagement and literacy,” as the University of Michigan’s Health Lab noted.

Examples include pointing out illustrations of an animal and prompting the child to mimic what the animal “says,” commenting on how the child’s experience is similar to or different from a story character, or asking the child what he or she thinks will happen next in the story.

Electronic devices—particularly those with enhanced capabilities such as animation or sound effects—may interfere with parents’ engaging in these simple-but-important types of interaction with their toddlers during this critical developmental phase.

“Parents strengthen their children’s ability to acquire knowledge by relating new content to their children’s lived experiences,” Dr. Munzer told the AAP.

“Research tells us that parent-led conversations (are) especially important for toddlers because they learn and retain new information better from in-person interactions than from digital media.”

The researchers’ advice is simple.

Parents choosing a tablet format to share stories with toddlers should make a conscious effort to engage the child in the same ways they would if the story were in a printed format.

Pediatricians, meanwhile, are encouraged to continue to recommend printed books over electronic devices for this age group.