Parents and toddlers talked less over e-books than print

The short answer

In a small observational study, parents and toddlers talked less, and collaborated less, when reading an electronic book together than when reading the same kind of story in print. The device did not just change the format; it changed the conversation around the story.

What the evidence says

Munzer, Miller, Weeks, Kaciroti and Radesky published their study in Pediatrics on 1 April 2019, observing 37 parent-toddler pairs read together across three book formats: print, a basic electronic book, and an enhanced electronic book with sound effects and animation. Parents used significantly more dialogic talk, meaning open questions and back-and-forth about the story, with print books than with either electronic format. Toddlers also verbalised and collaborated more during print reading. With electronic books, and especially the enhanced version, a larger share of parent comments were about operating the device or format itself rather than about the story's content.

For context

This is a small, observational study of one reading session per format, not a trial of long-term reading habits, and it cannot say whether the pattern would fade as families grew used to a particular e-book. Its finding lines up with the 2016 American Academy of Pediatrics statement Media and Young Minds, which highlights parent-child shared media use as valuable in its own right, separate from which device or format is involved. Read together, the two suggest that the format is not neutral background to the interaction; it can compete with the interaction for a parent's attention.

A practical next step

If you read with an e-book, it may help to notice whether your own comments are drifting toward the buttons and animations rather than the story, and to ask the kind of questions about the plot you would ask over a print book.

• When you last read an e-book together, were most comments about the story or about the device?
• Could you ask one open question about the story per page, regardless of format?
• Is there a print version of a favourite e-book that might make co-reading talk easier?

The study does not say electronic books are bad for toddlers, only that in this sample, the format changed how much parents and children talked about the story rather than the story mechanics, and that difference is something a parent can actively work against regardless of which format is on hand.