A recent AP article by Melissa Rayworth introduces a recent trend, pioneered by Don Katz, of bedtime stories being available on digital audio players. Apparently, "I hear lots of people talking, saying that when they put their kids to bed, they put them down with an audio book," says Audio Publishers Association president Michele Cobb. So his response was to make books available for kids on their ipods.
I have seriously mixed feelings about this topic. On the one hand, we have kids who aren’t being read to by their parents and they are missing out on an excellent way to bond and learn. The attempts should be made to get the parents to hang on an extra thirty minutes and read a book. I look back at bedtime stories with my father quite fondly and I feel bad for kids that don’t have that. So in a way it is good that these kids have access to their books being read aloud but I don’t feel audio books make up for parent involvement.
Plus if kids are only listening to books, they are missing out on an opportunity to jump start their education and make learning a lot easier. Granted hearing the words if beneficial but I wonder if the kids actually have the books to read along with, and I’m going to assume the answer is probably no. Kids should have parents who read to them often, not just at night, all the time, and audio books cannot take the place of that; audio books used in conjunction of course could only help a child’s potential.
“Katz believes that reaching kids through digital media may inspire them to have a lifelong love of books — even the old-fashioned printed kind” (Rayworth). I hope, for the sake of a generation of children, that this is the case. I do understand his point here though, lets take a kid that hates to read for example but gets lured into reading by audio books and of course this would be a positive thing but only if he eventually makes the jump from just listening to actually reading.
2 comments:
It seems pains me to hear that parents would rather play an audio book for than children, than read to them at night. Part of what engages a child in the reading process is the bonding experience that comes from reading with a parent. I am inclined to agree with Nicole that these children are probably not reading along with the audio books, which means they are not putting the textual words together with what they are hearing. Also, for younger children, the pictures in books are just as much a part of the text as the words are. Even if a child does not understand what they are hearing read to them, they are engaged in the reading process by looking at the pictures and discussing what they see with the person reading. It is not just the story that matters for children. It is the bonding that encourages an excitement for books. I don't think listening to an audio version of a book, read by some stranger, excites a child to make meaning between what they hear and what they see in books. I guess I understand the rationale that this may help children who are not interested in books, but I think it's off-base. These children would be no more inclined to become interested in books than they were before, since a book is not part of the process. I just don't get it. I can remember reading books that came with an audio tape that would "ding" when it was time to turn the page. These were fun to read along with, but I don't think that's what is happening here. Also, those kinds of books don't take the place of responding to books with a parent. Children need to see how others appreciate reading for it to become an important part of their life. I will not be buying any of these audio books for my own child. I love our nightly ritual of story time and wouldn't trade it for the world.
I completely agree with Lori and Nicole and wonder why parents wouldn't want to read to their children. I see my aunt read to her children and they are completely engaged and purely happy when they are being read to. They try to read along and my aunt points to words sometimes for them to jump in and try to read the word. I think audio books are alright for adults who get stuck in traffic for three hours, but not little kids who want to bond with their parents and just hear their voices.
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