Hi, everyone! (My first post - other than for the “Introduce Yourself” section.)
I’m a new aunt, and only recently started researching the best, most effective, and fun ways to help little kids learn. I have a young nephew (16 months), a couple young nieces (2 1/2 years, and 1 year), and another couple of young nieces and nephews on the way. When I was young, my mother started reading to me very early, and reading has been something I’ve enjoyed for my entire life.
My question is, does anyone feel that “flashy” books, the books with electronic sounds and/or lights, actually help kids learn to read? I didn’t have them when I was young, and I’m not sure how I feel about them. I almost feel that they distract kids more than help them become interested in books. When my nieces and nephews stop by, I want to be the ‘fun aunt,’ but also want to be a good influence on them. I’ve always thought that flashy books and toys were probably not that helpful, but I really only have my own experience to go by.
I personally beleive that all that flashy books doesnt help much.But i beleive for younger children if there is one picture and one word on page than it will help more to give them clear picture.Say for ex if there is Milk picture and Milk word on 1 page than we can show to them that this Milk picture and it’s word rather than confusing them with many pictures and words on 1 page which will confuse them.So if that flashy books have clear picture and short story or word than there nothing wrong to use them.And u should have varieties of books like story books,science books,touch n feel books, only picture book with no words on it so that they can imagine and make there own story by looking at the pictures of the book without any words let them express themselves.I highly recommend those books with only pictures and no words.
I view these kind of “books” more as toys then reading help. I agree that they are too distracting to really help the child focus on the words. However, I do like to have them around. I do feel that it helps with the practice of turning the page. But I don’t use them for our reading times, just for fun stuff to have around.
I will say though that we got our five year old daughter the Tag Reading System and she seems to really like it. She likes to try to read it herself then if she needs help with a word she can point the pen at it and it will read it for her. So I think this “electronic” book is helpful for her and it has boosted her confidence to try by herself. But, she does get distracted by the other games she can play with it instead of the reading. :rolleyes:
I very much doubt that they help kids to read unless they are well supervised by adults. The books I saw had too many words on the pages for the very young child to be able to follow the story if it was read to them by the electronics. Perhaps they would be useful for a child who was slightly older, could read a fair amount but could perhaps learn a few new words (same as the CD-book combinations)
I think its good for children to be exposed to as much as possible though, so I may end up buying one for my child, but I wouldn’t rely on it to do the teaching.
I agree with what everyone else has said. They can be distracting for younger children who just want to press the buttons instead of look and listen to the story. They may be ok for an older child who is content to press the appropriate buttons at the appropriate times. I think they are great for toys b/c the child is exposed to a book that’s fun to play with, but if you’re wanting to teach something, I would go with more traditional books.
Thanks, everyone - that’s exactly how I feel! I guess I was just thinking that someone out there might have found these kinds of books more useful than I thought they were. I definitely think that the ‘old-fashioned’ books are the way to go, but if there were any electronic books out there that actually made a different in a young child’s ability to read, I’d definitely look into them. So far, I don’t know of any, and yes, I continue to find the noises that the electronic books make more distracting than anything else!
We look at electronic books occasionally, & most of the time I don’t think they have a lot of value. However, we have one that has tiny buttons & when you push them you also get an animal/vehicle/nature sound. K really likes this toy, & I noticed a definate improvement in fine motor skills after she started trying to push the buttons. She also started trying to copy the animal sounds. We had been working on this by playing with a farm set etc., but the book seemed to be a real motivator for her. I still consider electronic books to be toys as pp said, but suprisingly saw some good results with this one.
Interesting - do you happen to know what the title of the book is? I’d really like to take a look at it - maybe it would be something one of my nieces would be interested in!
I especially like the idea of pairing up electronic books (if I ever have to use one) along with other toys, to help not only increase motor skills, but noise and object connections.
Our son got given an electronic ABC book. It has all the letters, numbers and a few shapes. It also has got animals and their sounds and has a few nursery rhymes. I was delighted when we first got given it - I thought how fun…
Well, our son did like it but once he had figured out the different settings to make the animals sounds, and the songs play etc, it got put aside. It is quite noisy too, my husband isn’t at all partial toward it. I did think though that if it was to teach a foreign language it probably would have been a bit more useful as the sound of the language is a big thing in learning.
I’m very curious, now! What was it about the Leap Pad that you hated so much? I’ve never been around one, so I’m not entirely sure how they operate. Was it just loud, or hard to use, or really not as educational as they advertise?
I usually feel the same way that your husband does (I’m assuming that the constant loud noises from the book were bothering him, too). I’m actually kind of surprised that your son put away the book once he finished learning how all the buttons and sounds worked - I always thought that little kids found the buttons more fun than sitting to read, so that they might actually use the book more, but not really learn anything from it!
RBehrs - It is just called Sound Book. I can’t even find a brand name on it. I bought it at a 2nd hand toy store, so I can’t even tell you where to get it. It is blue & has 8 pages. When you push the button it says the name of the object in the picture & then makes it’s sound. it has 4 pictures on each page so 32 items in total. Too bad it doesn’t have a brand name on it, because it is a hard toy to locate otherwise.
Really, this toy is more for fine motor & speech than reading, although it does name each item in print & speech. The print is a little small though.