Words, words, words.
Taken from my time volunteering at a nursery. I discovered that learning was really hands-on!
Why will the print book never truly disappear from our stores? My thoughts on why books are cool and the benefits of physical books for children learning to read.
For Hamlet, words were heavy. They carried meaning, but they let him hesitate and ponder. Our scholar prince did almost nothing until his final moments, other than make a few (wonderful) soliloquies. Whether you think it’s a ruse or world-class procrastination, what may be realised is that our engagement with words is paramount.
Perhaps one way to look at words as opposed to just features of language is the way that they work in our minds. We often associate words with the image of a physical experience, object, or memory that allows us to define it. These images may be said to facilitate our complex language systems and expressions - allowing us to understand metaphors and other abstract ideas. For example, if I were to tell you not to miss the "window of opportunity", you'd likely understand that I wasn't asking you to jump through a window (because that would probably hurt). Rather, the image of the window as transparent, allowing light to pass freely, would let you imagine a current situation in comparison to that image and its features i.e. small or brief but available.
It’s this concept that has strengthened this one belief: digital experience will never replace reality. My e-book reader may be convenient and lightweight and compact and whatever other selling points we attach to it but it will never fully replace the physical experience of the print book. In another analogy that may be easier to understand: I wouldn't say I had a very satisfying holiday if Thomas Cook took me to a beach via Google Earth - I'd probably ask for my money back.
Therefore, physical sensations and stimuli are particularly important for early development. Children learn more quickly when they have objects to familiarise themselves with and places to explore. Obviously, there are certain constraints particularly with urban living. But it's the physical world that allows children to learn and apply. Taking the Google Earth holiday a little further, it's not quite the same experience when I try to imagine what it looks like to relax on a digital beach when I don't have the sensation of sand sticking to my skin or the warm sunshine (something we truly lack in the UK). So, you probably couldn't ask a child to learn that fires burn by imagining it if they haven’t felt the heat of a fire before.
At a young age, children need the physical experience of learning from books to learn about their physical surroundings. When we give our two-year-old a book about a squirrel and a nut, she may read it and then seem to completely forget it, but she may spot a nut or acorn in about a week's time and suddenly say the word that you thought you didn't teach her! She'll even recognise the book at first glance and bring it to you. They learn to connect the images associated with the word first before they learn the actual words and, as they do this, their little brains begin to fill in the gaps so they can gain a deeper understanding of their world.
Here’s why a digital platform might lose out: phones, tablets, and other such devices aren't usually optimised for toddlers and babies because their software were designed by adults for adults who already have a complex system of verbal and non-verbal communication pre-installed in their brains. Children who don't have this (and I've seen my two-year-old niece do this many times) just randomly scroll through videos and select one. There may be some level of judgement, as there are thumbnails that accompany the videos, but they're simply imitating adult behaviour (scrolling and searching before making a selection). What a thumbnail means in accordance with its title is largely lost - and so is the opportunity to teach them about it. The software in our devices are merely sources of instant stimulation for those who don't understand it.
The sort of stimulation a developing brain needs is the sort that can allow it to make sense of the world around it. Books allow children to have a physical experience with the look and sound of words and provide this within a platform that’s easier to understand than a digital screen. This way, they can associate words with their environment without expecting them to know a thousand words by the time they're six months and we start putting them in front of YouTube.
I may be an advocate of print books because I have an intense desire to fill a library that can match my ego, but they truly are irreplaceable for our children.
What do you think about print vs. digital for children? Maybe you find that digital platforms are harder to concentrate on? Maybe you have some research that can support my ramblings or you (dis)agree with me! Leave a comment below and join in the conversation.
Our ultimate goal is to help you raise bilingual children in the UK and let them start reading from an early age. We’ll be stocking books in the near future, but what’s really important is that we get the conversation going so we can let our future generation embrace different cultures and opportunities!
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