“Did you like this book?” asks the computer. It’s a customer-satisfaction question, but it seems more profound than that.
We hesitate. Ben, my 3-year-old son, shoots me a puzzled look. The answer should be yes. Ben enjoys what’s on the screen right now: Starfall, an online medley of free learn-to-read activities. But he doesn’t like the question.
“It’s not a book,” he explains, emphatically, to the laptop. “It’s more ...
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Heffernan draws an interesting--and vital--distinction between the act of 'reading' and the shared experience of enjoying three-dimensional books with a real live person. For the very young, it is especially important to make time with books a pleasant, sociable time...and equally important to differentiate from the more singular experience of digital "books."
Research in early childhood education has identified six pre-reading skills children need before they can put the pieces together and actually read. The first is associating books with pleasant experiences: hugs and cuddles and attention from mom, dad, or any loving caregiver, and it is never too early to begin reading with baby.
A bit light weight, but this piece makes an interesting point. As we watch new media technology overtake the written word in so many places, perhaps there is reason to pause and consider that a book and a book on a Kindle are two different things. It seems the author is making a pretty big stretch to use the one piece of expert information cited.
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