When we think about literacy, few of us think of online portals. After all, social media platforms like Facebook and even Twitter often take the blame for poor grammar. Not to mention that shortened words and acronyms that we typically use online have done a fair amount of damage to language comprehension on the whole.
Still, as more and more parents are coming to realize, keeping literacy and technology separate simply isn’t working anymore. In fact, in an age where kids seem to crave screen time more than anything, trying to get them to instead open a book only makes them resent or altogether avoid reading. Â
That’s not good news, and it’s something that you could avoid by simply teaching literacy on those tech devices that modern children seem to engage with the most. After all, if you can’t beat them, you sometimes have to join them. What’s more, this switch towards online education could actually benefit literacy learning in the following ways.Â
A chance to learn at their own pace
For most of us, reading is like breathing. We do it without thinking, and this can make teaching literacy hard. Even if you’re trying to take it slow, you may accidentally skip over knowledge that you take for granted, leaving your child none the wiser and assuming that they ‘just don’t get’ it. By comparison, online platforms like ABCmouse are tailored towards literacy that goes at your child’s pace. This makes learning way more accessible, ensuring that they fully grasp each lesson before moving onto the next for a reading habit, and hopefully a love of literacy, that sticks.Â
Wider book choice to take their fancy
It’s common knowledge that finding the ‘ideal’ book for a child is the best way to cement a positive reading habit but, with limited in-person libraries, finding that perfect read can feel seem impossible. By comparison, online portals like Epic! have over 35,000 kids books to choose from. Even online library portals are now able to stock way more options than they could in a physical setting, making it much more likely that you’ll find the ideal read to keep your children interested at last.
The option of audiobooks
Audiobooks sometimes get a bad reputation, but it’s not altogether deserved. While it is true that reading and listening are very different skills, audiobooks from platforms like Scribd actually provide a wide range of literacy benefits, especially where comprehension and reading fluency are concerned. What’s more, children who struggle with reading due to dyslexia, ADHD, or just general difficulties, often find that they can engage much better with audiobooks than words on a page. While you will still want to ensure some actual reading, then, adding audiobooks into the literacy mix definitely isn’t a bad thing.
There are always going to be traditionalists who think literature should stay on a bookshelf, but times are changing and, as many of us switch to e-readers even in our adult years, the benefits of online literacy are becoming ever-more evident for all to see.
*This is a collaborative post