Printed books way better than tablets for parent-child bonding: study

March 27, 2019  19:28

When it comes to story time, printed books are still “the gold standard,” according to a new study that suggests parents and children have less interaction when using tablets.

“The print book is a really beautiful object in that each parent and child interacts differently over a print book,” lead researcher Dr. Tiffany Munzer told ABC News.

“The print book is really the gold standard in eliciting positive interactions between parents and their children.”

The study published in the journal Pediatrics found parents bonded better with their children, asking more questions and encouraging them to point out objects when reading it in book form.

Shared book reading is still regarded by pediatricians as one of the most important developmental activities families can engage in, promoting early childhood literacy.

Researchers at the University of Michigan studied 37 pairs of parents and their toddlers and videotaped them reading short stories from “Little Critter” in print book form, in basic electronic form and interactive form.

The study found parents and toddlers made more statements with print books such as what they were seeing on the page, whereas most interactions on tablets were about swiping to the next page or pushing buttons.

Up to 75 percent of families own a tablet device and 25 percent own an e-reader, devices which have been found to interrupt preschoolers’ reading comprehension.

Munzer insisted the study was not about making busy parents feel bad but rather about helping them maximize quality time with their children.

“Our goal with some of the kinds of findings in the study is not to make things harder for parents, but to help them focus on activities that spark interactions with their children where they feel that back-and-forth is really easy,” she said.

“Parents know their children well and have to make it come alive for their child to create that magic.”

Source: New York Post

Follow NEWS.am Medicine on Facebook and Twitter


 
  • Video
 
 
  • Event calendar
 
 
  • Archive