Parents And Children Both Prefer Print Books To E-Books – Study

The Joan Ganz Cooney Center’s Sarah Vaala and Lori Takeuchi report that to follow up on insights revealed the Center’s Print vs. E-books QuickStudy, they conducted a second QuickStudy QuickReport: Parent Co-Reading Survey to survey parents about reading books with their 2-to-6-year-old children in which they assessed family ownership of devices on which e-books can be read and included a set of questions about reading e-books with children since market research indicates these are emerging trends.

Vaala and Takeuchi note that because the Apple iPad has demonstrated a quick rise to dominance in the tablet marketplace, the report delves into iPad owners’ practices and perceptions surrounding the use of e-books in their kids’ literacy development. The researchers found noteworthy patterns of perceptions and use of e-books among the families in this sample who own iPads that they say warrant broader conversations and pose important questions for researchers and designersays:

One finding of the research was that both kids and parents tend to still prefer ink-on-paper books to the on-screen kind:

“A majority of the iPad owners who read e-books with their kids say they still prefer reading print books with them (see Figure 6). In fact, 89.9% of these parents report that they read mostly print books and some e-books with their children, compared to 7.5% who say they read print books and e-books equally with their children, and 2.7% who read mostly or exclusively e-books. While many parents who do not co-read e-books worry that their children would want to use their iPad all the time, the majority of parents who do read e-books with their children believe their children actually prefer reading print books together.”

For more information, visit:
http://www.joanganzcooneycenter.org/Reports-36.html

You can download the report here:
http://bit.ly/QYyqz5