Technology
Many parents like to read interesting books to their children before going to bed or tell evening stories. With the advent of new technologies, you can find a huge number of e-books on the market, so-called e-books, that is, books in electronic format.
The New York Times reported that parents, even the most devoted fans of modern technology, mostly avoid e-books. It seems that the feel and texture of real paper pages with colorful illustrations is preferable to standard e-book screens.
More than 25 per cent of adult literature is already being sold digitally, and less than 5 per cent of books for children under 8 years old. “It's not fun to read a classic children's book from the screen,” says Carol Moyer, head of children's literature at a large bookstore in Raleigh, North Carolina. “Them it is more unlikely that any of the children will want to exchange a beautiful new book signed by the author for an electronic one.”
“E-books don't have the warmth and intimacy that printed books with illustrations on every page have,” Moyer added.
Indeed, an e-book will not be able to provide the cozy feeling that comes from turning page by page with a child. It's also hard to imagine what an e-book might look like for the youngest kids who are just starting to speak. How do you convey the volume, interesting shapes, and texture of toy books or books with unfolding pages?
Some technophiles believe that an e-book can show a lot of interesting things. For example, the iPad has the ability to show much more than just boring still images of pages. This device can read books out loud, accompany stories with moving pictures, and even show pages and images in 3D. For example, in the new tablet version of the famous Alice in Wonderland book, you can find a 52-page classic fairy tale presented in the form of a game where the reader can not only see images characters, but using the touch screen — increase or decrease Alice, move characters, and so on.
This idea is very original, although the fairy tale now looks more like a cartoon than a book. To the chagrin of many parents, children already spend too much time on the computer. The American Academy of Pediatricians advises parents to stop children under 2 from watching TV and playing computer games because they still don't understand a lot. After 2 years, children are advised to watch TV no more than 2 hours a day.
When children see an electronic device, they are no longer interested in reading, they want to play. Moreover, if the book reads itself, parents are already superfluous in this case. How, then, will children develop reading skills? Many experts believe that reading regular books helps parents spend more time with their children, communicate more with them, answer their questions, and so on.