Daniel makes stuff, and, in his spare time, writes about things like movies, kid culture, and geek stuff.
Michael Norris on Encouraging Children's Reading Habits

Michael Norris:

“Parents have too much of a role in deciding which books their child is going to read,” said Norris. “It is turning children off. They should let them choose.”

His response comes as the summation of a year of industry surveys he conducted for Book Publishing Report, in which he concluded that parental attitudes and pressure – not the allure of technology – is what’s keeping kids from reading. (Oops. There goes that scapegoat.)

Librarians and booksellers will especially like this line:

“It should all be about patience and believing that books are sold to one person, one at a time,” said Norris.

Norris goes on to list some truly useful tips for parents about how to encourage a love of reading in their child, to which I can only add, for reference, Daniel Pennac’s The Rules of the Reader.

UPDATE: Kate Wilson kindly points out in the comments to the piece that, while of course children’s own reading independence is an admirable thing, there is a real joy in the shared act of parents and children reading together. I think this entire discussion just goes to show that parents who take joy in the act of reading – and create a culture of pleasure around reading, whether it is an individual or shared activity – will likely have kids who also delight in reading.

Apr 25, 2010 :: Tagged under: , , , , :: #

'The More Things Change....'

Children’s publisher Stephen Roxburgh recounts the experience of test-driving his new iPad with his five-year-old daughter:

For those who can’t imagine sitting down with a child in their lap reading on a screen, listen to this. The last book we looked at was Winnie-the-Pooh, which ports beautifully over to the iPad screen. In the horizontal mode the book is laid out in spreads and the full-color Sheppard illustrations are as gorgeous as ever. I read Belle a few pages and then asked her what she wanted to do next. She said, simply, “Read.”

Priceless.

Apr 08, 2010 :: Tagged under: , , , , , :: #

"A Souped-up Picture Book"

Thoughts from Christopher Harris on what Apple’s iPad might mean for school libraries and the future of children’s reading.

The critical question for me right now is whether […] children would select a traditional, printed volume or a digitally enriched electronic version. Not what we would select, but what our students would choose. We know children aren’t born with the love and respect we have for print books; consider volumes from your own collection, which young ones have drawn in, gnawed upon, or otherwise destroyed. So why are we often so intent on imposing our preferences on our students?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the Apple iPad since, well, long before it was announced – and the possibilities for how it will revolutionise literacy are immense. More relevantly, I don’t think any of us really know how kids are going to interact with the device, and what it will be like to grow up reading digitally. I’ve taken a few stabs at pondering this future (including in the Talkback for Christopher’s post, and a few unfinished essays about it), but I always stop myself short simply due to the awesome, far-reaching potential.

It’s fascinating to think about, and I don’t think we’re giving near enough prescience to to the quiet revolution that is about to take place.

Mar 02, 2010 :: Tagged under: , , , :: #

Texting Improves Kids' Read Ability

New studies out that again touch on how children’s texting actually helps – not hinders – their ability to read, write and spell regular English:

The proportions of textisms that kids used in their sentence translations was positively linked to verbal reasoning; the more textspeak kids used, the higher their test scores. Another study found a high correlation between spelling scores and the proportions of textisms. And the kids who used the most textisms consisting of abbreviated words (like nite instead of night) or youth-type slang (wanna, gonna, hafta, etc.) were also high scorers on spelling tests.

I mentioned before how I think technology-based communication should actually be thought of as an additional, “dual” language – say, akin to learning a secondary language like Spanish in elementary school, to go along with English. In fact, this study’s authors use similar framework: stating that children “could slip between standard school English when it was required in [standardized English] tests, and casual text language when that was appropriate.”

The best news, though, is that the increased exposure to written language – whatever the platform, including texting – has a greatly positive impact on literacy. So again: Don’t freak about your kid using technology or texting nonstop. It’s a good thing.

Jan 21, 2010 :: Tagged under: , , :: #