A sizeable number of young kids will be getting e-readers this Christmas. Though not everyone is plunging in —  the New York Times recently reported that some adults are eschewing them for their children even while they embrace them for themselves — the appeal to parents is strong, especially when marketers pitch the devices as on-ramps to literacy. What today’s gift-givers may not know is that the devices can unintentionally cause parents to hamper their child’s learning. This phenomenon first turned up a few years ago in research at Temple University on e-books for preschool and elementary school children. Instead of talking with their children about the content of the books, parents ended up spouting “do this, don’t do that” directives about how to use the devices. “Parents would put their hands over the kids’s hands,” said Julia Parish-Morris, the leader of the study and now a post-doctoral researcher in pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania. “They were trying to control their children’s behavior” to get them to move through the story chronologically, she explained. Search “toddlers and iPad” on YouTube these days, and some of the same well-meaning but bossy talk is on display: Instead of asking their children about the on-screen content, parents bark: “Show me.” “Play it.” “Good job, go to the next one.” All this chatter may interfere with comprehension. When Parish-Morris at Temple tested how well children understood the stories on electronic devices, the e-book users did significantly worse than those who sat with their parents reading print. Parents may have interrupted more often because it was hard to get used to the device or too many images beckoned to be clicked. Either way, the kids ended up with “a jumbled version of the story in their brains,” she said. (MORE: Annie Murphy Paul: Why Digital Literacy Will Never Replace the Traditional Kind) A more recent study, led by Gabrielle Strouse at Vanderbilt University, also shows how much it matters what parents say and do while their children watch. Strouse asked parents of 3-year-olds to watch Scholastic … Continue reading Why E-Reading with Your Kid Can Impede Learning