Parenting: 'Daddy, will you e-read me to bed?'

January 18, 2012 (WPVI) -- Some of you may have received one of the new e-tablets for the holidays. And some of you may have received one of those good ol' fashioned books.

And then there are your children asking mommy or daddy to read to them before bed. And you pull out the e-reader because, well, it's new, it's hip, it's easy, it's cool, and you happen to have downloaded a great children's story with great pictures and&

Whoa, not so fast. Time profiled this very phenomenon in a recent education article.

The Time reporter cited a study from Temple University, which found that when parents had their children read from a Kindle, an iPad, etc., the parents would spend too much time trying to direct how their kids use the device, and less time helping the youngsters actually comprehend the story.

Perhaps the e-reader itself becomes too much the focus because that is what the child is holding in his or her hands. You might be ensuring the child is swiping correctly, advancing to the right page, and not accidentally hitting an app that brings the child to your bank account, Ebay, or a ridiculous YouTube video.

If it was an actual book in the child's hands, with lots of big words, pictures and maybe a pop-up or two, the story itself would be front-and-center. The child probably picked up the left-to-right process of reading a book and turning its pages already.

Bottom line: make sure it's about the story, not the process.

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matt o'donnell parenting reports, parenting, matt o'donnell

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