2.2 New ways to encourage reading

Think of all the various forms of reading you do for different purposes on a daily basis. Perhaps we can encourage children’s reading in different ways to accommodate a wider range of interests to reflect today’s world of new information and communication technologies.

New digital technologies have brought exciting opportunities for children of all ages, and digital books can be downloaded from apps onto computers and tablets such as the iPad. There is a growing number of exciting apps that can stimulate parent and child interactivity in online reading and book sharing. However, not everyone recognises the benefits of these new technologies and some parents have concerns that their child is spending too much time on a computer rather than reading a traditional book.

Work done by Kucirkova et al. (2014) on the digital personalisation of books has shown that digital books provide alternative ways of interacting and engaging children, parents and teachers. According to Kucirkova et al. (2014), evidence has been mixed in relation to the role that digital books can play in literacy development. Digital books don’t always have the richness of vocabulary and grammar of print books, and parents don’t use as many helpful reading strategies while sharing digital books but concentrate more on IT skills. Nevertheless, digital books provide an exciting alternative way of interacting and engaging readers, teachers and parents. See for example:

• Nosy Crow [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]
• The world of Mr Glue.

If you are interested in the debates about children and digital technologies and whether they are a good or a bad thing, you might like to enrol on Childhood in the Digital Age, a free Open University module on FutureLearn.