Digital content for the digital generation
Today’s children have been raised in a period of huge technological advancement. This is culminating in the current increased reliance on technology to enable continued learning and reading as schools, libraries, and bookshops have closed during lockdown. With rising concerns that lockdown may reduce children’s access to reading materials, the Oak National Academy has partnered with the National Literacy Trust to launch a virtual library that will provide free ebooks and audiobooks for children during lockdown (Shennan, 2021), and Aberdeenshire Council is expanding their provision of children’s ebooks and audiobooks in local libraries in order to make reading more accessible (Wyllie, 2021). As print books become difficult to access and concern surrounding the impact of lockdowns on children’s reading grows, what benefits can be offered by the increased provision of digital reading resources for children?
Learning
As schools and libraries are closed, digital content has become important in facilitating continued education for children. Studies of digital reading resources for young children have identified that a balance of text, illustration, and audio content works to increase pre-school children’s engagement with and understanding of stories, while further helping to build children’s literacy (Bus et al, 2015). Education professionals are also increasingly in agreement that ebooks and audiobooks can “support the literacy developments of adolescents”, as well as those of younger children (Moore and Cahill, 2016).
The educational potential of digital reading resources has become increasingly important during Covid lockdowns, as it has become clear that lockdown has a significant impact on school pupil’s education, particularly those at schools which lack the resources to provide students with reliable access to learning materials from home (Harley, 2020). As print books become increasingly inaccessible for children learning from home, digital content can enable children to continue reading and therefore continue learning. This highlights the importance of schemes such as the Oak National Academy virtual library in providing children with accessible learning materials.
Entertainment
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson said, “Reading is hugely important not only for children’s literacy skills, but also their mental health and wellbeing”, highlighting the importance of children’s reading for entertainment as well as education (Shennan, 2021). Studies of young children’s engagement with digital reading resources have argued that “children’s engagement … is greater with digital than with print books”, and that digital content can further act to diversify children’s reading (Kucirkova, 2019). Digital content therefore benefits children by increasing their enjoyment of reading as an activity.
This has again taken on greater significance during Covid lockdowns. The National Literacy Trust found that more children turned to reading for entertainment during lockdown, with audiobooks in particular acting to reduce the gender gap in children’s reading as 51% of boys agreed that “listening to audiobooks has increased their interest in reading” (Clark and Picton, 2020). Accessible digital content is important in enabling children of all ages to read for entertainment, and the increased provision of a variety of digital book formats will help to encourage more children to consume books in a format which suits them.
Digital reading materials have become central in providing children with key resources for education and entertainment, at a time when the traditional spaces for accessing books are closed. As we see first-hand the importance of the accessible provision of digital books for children, others should follow the example of the Oak National Academy and Aberdeenshire Council to provide children with books in a variety of formats, to make digital content more accessible and to further spread the benefits of children’s reading.
Bus, A.G., Takacs, Z.K., Kegel, C.A.T. 2015. Affordances and limitations of electronic storybooks for young children’s emergent literacy. Developmental Review 35: pp.79–97.
Clark, C. and Picton, I. 2020. Children and young people’s reading in 2020 before and during the COVID-19 lockdown. National Literacy Trust [Online] Available at: https://literacytrust.org.uk/research-services/research-reports/children-and-young-peoples-reading-in-2020-before-and-during-the-covid-19-lockdown/ [Accessed 3/2/2021].
Harley, J. 2020. Lockdown impact on child development. The Guardian [Online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/nov/23/lockdown-impact-on-child-development [Accessed 4/2/2021].
Kucirkova, N. 2019. Children’s Reading with Digital Books: Past Moving Quickly to the Future. Child Development Perspectives 13(4).
Moore, J. and Cahill, M. 2016. Audiobooks: Legitimate “Reading” Material for Adolescents?. School Library Research 19.
Shennan, R. 2021. Children can access books online for free during school closures — here’s how. The Scotsman [Online] Available at: https://www.scotsman.com/read-this/children-can-access-books-online-free-during-school-closures-heres-how-3103930 [Accessed 3/2/2021].
Wyllie, J. 2021. Aberdeenshire Council to spend £300,000 on lockdown library books for kids and care homes. The Press and Journal [Online] Available at: https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/aberdeenshire/2801131/aberdeenshire-council-to-spend-300000-on-lockdown-library-books-for-kids-and-care-homes/ [Accessed 3/2/2021].
