Oakley, GraceJay, Jenny. "Making Time" For Reading: Factors That Influence The Success Of Multimedia Reading In The Home." Reading Teacher 62.3 (2008): 246. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 8 May 2013.
I have a toddler at my house and a new Nook Color HD. Part of hubby’s justification for buying the new Nook was that kiddo really likes reading The Monster at the End of This Book on the IPhone. In Oakley’s article about “Making Time: for Reading, she is specifically discussing electronic talking books much like my kiddo’s Grover book. It talks to her, it lights up the word as it reads, it makes “boing” and “crash” noises and animated illustrations as appropriate. This study looks at kids that are a little older than my daughter and gages their interest in reading based on using electronic talking books at home. These kids are in upper elementary school to middle school. My daughter is two.
Like I said, I work for the library for the blind in Texas, but we also serve patrons with some learning disabilities too. We frequently encounter parents and teachers who don’t understand why we don’t provide the text and the audio to books that we send (part cost, part not getting people the book in the format we need, etc..) so I know that people read and follow along, but I guess I didn’t think of it in terms of these interactive books. Oakley writes, “Because of the benefits of being read aloud to, we reasoned that having students simply listen to the ETBs would be preferable to them not engaging with written texts at all in the home context, although we hoped that they would read along too.” The kids Oakley was studying were not learning disabled kids though, they were just not particularly interested in reading. Oakley’s study was short in time frame so there were things that they just didn’t get to find out (was there an attitude change toward reading?) but in general the kids did read more and found the reading they did enjoyable, especially when they were able to engage their families into reading with them.
Another topic that I hadn’t considered is that some parents and classroom teachers don’t consider these electronic (and interactive) books to be “real” reading. For my own kiddo, if that’s the only way she was reading perhaps I’d think that too, it’s hard to say since she isn't old enough to read alone and she has other book experiences. Right now she only has one ebook, and she is a pre-reader. My kiddo enjoys going to the library, calls the library staff “Mommy’s friends” and has access to books in print and now electronically. She’s not always super interested in having us read to her (very mood dependent) but she likes to say “I read it myself” and sit with her books by herself.
The article also talked about using book selection to increase the reader’s interest in reading (to include subject matter, the amount of book interaction, highlighting available and narrator’s style). Presently with my kiddo I try to balance her picking books that she wants to read (books about characters she sees on TV and books that I know have quality reviews in some of the trusted library reviewing sources).
I hope that she can continue to find enjoyment of books whether reading with me or without me, and whether reading in print or in an e-format.
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