ANN ARBOR, Mich. – What book to read isn't the only choice today's parents are making at story time.
With tablets growing ever more popular, many families are wondering if there is a real difference between reading stories from a traditional book or reading them on a screen.
"There absolutely is a difference between print books and electronic books that you read on a tablet," said Dr. Tiffany Munzer, a developmental behavioral pediatrician at the University of Michigan C.S. Mott Children's Hospital.
Munzer is studying the impact of reading different types of books to children.
"We're looking at and exploring how parents and children read differently over basic electronic books, enhanced electronic books with these animated features and print books," Munzer said.
While most research has focused on older children, their study is looking at toddlers.
"Toddlers are just in this amazing developmental stage where they're learning how to talk, they're learning how to play, they're learning how to socialize," said Munzer.
Munzer explained that what matters most is how parents and children respond to the book and each other while reading.
"Research has shown that when parents can relate an experience back to the child's life, they actually learn that material so much better," Munzer said.
That's where traditional books seem to have an edge.
"Most parents will engage with their child and say, 'Oh what's a duck say?' and that will actually elicit the child's vocabulary and encourage them to say, 'Quack quack. That's a duck. We went over to the park and fed the ducks one day,'" Munzer said.
That interaction may not occur as often with electronic books.
"Previous studies have shown that parents and children talk less over electronic books compared to print books because presumably they're engaging more in some of these like tapping the buttons, swiping the pages and the quality of their verbalizations is actually lower in electronic books compared to print books," Munzer said. "A lot of electronic books have these bells and whistles or animations and sound effects and features that might actually detract from a parent being able to tell a story. Kids might get distracted and focus in more on those features as opposed to kind of the actual story content."
Munzer said traditional books may also have an advantage when it comes to the "snuggle factor."
"We think that these tablets are built to be these personal devices and so in clinics, we often notice kids engaging in these tablets. They kind of get this hunched over posture and they kind of tap the tablet and they actually move away from their parents and create this kind of personal space or personal bubble and that kind of interferes with the shared reading experience which is meant to be this beautiful snuggle time," Munzer said.
But don't toss the tablet just yet. Electronic books may be more beneficial for some children.
"For instance for kids with dyslexia, there are reading apps that actually pronounce and highlight words as they're going along and so it helps facilitate print learning in kids who might have brains that are wired differently to learn," Munzer said. "We do recommend these learning apps for children who have reading-based learning disabilities. The e-book itself is not a villain. I think there are certain features of e-books that we can use as tools to really promote learning in kids."
Most parents we talked to still prefer traditional books, in part, because it reminds them of their childhood.
We found Riezwana Hossain heading into the Ann Arbor Barnes & Noble bookstore with her 4-year-old son.
"The electronic book is much easier, and you can freely download so many things, but I still prefer paper because I remember my days, my older days, with my parents and my grandparents," Hossain said. "I want the same thing, same feeling with my kids. I think it doesn't feel the same with the electronics."
Her son prefers the traditional books too.
"He's much focused on the actual paper book," Hossain said.
Munzer said the most important factor is to read to your child early and often.
"It really has these lasting, incredibly lifelong effects for their children, and parents have the ability to make that difference in their children's lives," Munzer said.