Today being world book day, I thought I’d share this nice story with you about this very subject.
I was with someone the other day doing my usual social media training out in the sticks. I’d never met this guy before and to get an idea of how I could help, I was asking about his internet use at home. ‘Limited’ he said as he’s based in the countryside.
As the conversation progressed, we became more relaxed in each other’s company and started to share stories about our families. It turns out he has children of very similar ages to mine. He told me that his eldest (a son) had been diagnosed with Dyslexia. He explained that they’d paid for extra tutoring which had really grown his confidence and that his tutor had set him a target of reading a page a day. This he was doing and improvements were being seen.
At Christmas, my client had bought a Kindle as a family gift, to be shared by the children. He also thought it would be a good idea to get a digital version of the book his son was currently reading.
As I recall, on New Year’s Day he thought it might be time to check to see if his son had kept up the page-a-day habit, so he asked him to fetch the book so he could double check. His son then said that he’d been reading the book on the Kindle instead.
Expecting that he might have read a couple of pages over the holiday period, my client was delighted to find out that his son had actually read 80 pages in the week between Christmas and New Year! As you’d expect, having this new gadget to play with has had an enormous effect on his reading habits and he is ingesting books almost quicker than authors can write them.
I suppose the moral of the story is that you shouldn't be afraid that new technology will distract your children from possibly playing outside or interacting with their family. If used correctly, technology can really enhance a young person’s learning. Have you got any experience of children using gadgets in a positive way? If so, please share them below.
Thank you,
Matt.