Medical X-Press – Staff Writer
“Many parents think that giving their children interactive books with flaps, pop-ups and pull outs will help them learn to read, but research by Dr Jeanne Shinskey from the Department of Psychology at Royal Holloway, University of London has found this may actually stop toddlers from learning new words. Children seem to use these books more like toys, distracting them from learning new words and concepts. Dr Shinskey said: “Many educational picture books for toddlers often feature manipulatives like flaps or texture to encourage interaction, but do these actually help toddlers to learn new words? We wanted to test how a commercially-available book with or without flaps affected 2-year-olds’ learning of a new word for an unfamiliar object.” Two groups of toddlers looked through a book with a researcher that contained nine food illustrations. The two groups were shown the same book, but one had flaps for the children to lift and the other didn’t.”(more)