Reading is a difficult activity. It requires decoding words, then putting all the text together to make sense of what is being said. It becomes worse when the text has big words. It can be a frustrating experience for an emerging reader especially when the text talks about a subject that fascinates them. In comes YouTube with engaging videos and information about the same subject. Which one would the emerging reader pick?
*names have been changed to protect privacy.
7 year old Ravi is fascinated by cars, sports cars in particular. Anything about cars is enough to get his complete attention. Even something as small as the type of headlight or something as critical as engine power. A random discussion with his tuition teacher led them to find pictures of a particular car model having gone through 4 stages of change to get to what it is today. The pictures appeared in an online website that was heavily technical and meant to suit a tech savvy audience and definitely not a 7 year old. To the teacher's surprise, the kid asked to read the article with her. Skeptical at first, but not wanting to discourage him, they took turns to read small paragraphs. To her surprise, he was eager to guess and read even the big words. Even better explain to her what they meant in the context of cars!
Curious to know what changed, she asked him how he knew so much. He replied with a big smile on his face, "Ma'am I saw it on YouTube."
At first the teacher didn't think too much about it. She chose another article on electric cars but this time from a renowned children's magazine. The same 7 year old showed no interest in reading. Could it be because the concept of electric cars- cars that run on electricity was an alien concept? Perhaps but the article being written for children had an introductory note on it. But that made no difference.
What went wrong?
The information wasn't available in video format which had become an easy source of information for him. After all it didn't involve much effort. All that he had to do was click and watch. No decoding, no deciphering, no struggle.
Worrisome if unchecked
The bigger picture offers bigger challenges. This tendency if goes unnoticed, the child could get used to video based learning with little or no reading for fun even. As years go by, school becomes a challenge as plenty of learning happens from books and less from videos.
Watching video content often leads to blind absorption of information without questioning the reliability or need for the information.
YouTube Kids seemed to have few takers
YouTube Kids soon came after findings that indicated that children below 13 were using YouTube and were being exposed to inappropriate content. However, the number of children shifting to the regular YouTube channel seems significant as the kid version is too 'babyish'. In India, this shift is said to happen typically around the age 7.
It is so easy to get a child hooked on to YouTube but difficult to get a book in to their hands- It doesn't have to be that way.
Looking to books for entertainment or information starts early. Even 10 minutes a day can make a huge difference. Ironically there is time to watch T.V, YouTube etc., but no time to read. Lives for parents has become tougher one may argue giving them little time and patience to actively look for engaging picture books which when read together amounts for quality time spent together. Looking for a list of beautiful picture books? Look here.
Once a child likes a book, chances are that you would be reading and rereading those books for awhile. Asha used to pick "Bubbles the Litterbug" almost every time she sat on her mother's lap for a reading session. "She absolutely loved that book. She used to make faces when I read about how Bubbles' favourite park looked dirty and smelly. And that made it impossible for him to play." Weeks later, when Asha's mother took her to visit her grandparents, Asha told them about how her mother had thrown a juice packet over a garbage mound on the road. "That's when I realized the extent of impact the book had on Asha. This is now a famous story in our household," says Asha's mother looking extremely happy. Asha is now a teen who still likes to unwind with a book preferably funny. She doesn't mind 'reading' to research and find information. She questions the reliability of information if she notices something is off. It is hard to say if a child who grows up on YouTube would have the similar mindset.
YouTube as a education tool to supplement other resources
Video based learning is useful when used to complement the learning process. As a standalone tool it could be fairly useless leading to new challenges. Having a combination of tools - books, pictures, videos as a subject for conversation helps making learning a lot more comprehensive. For instance while discovering words to describe emotions, a teacher showed her students textual examples with pictures and videos. This activity was followed by a quiz that had a combination of pictures and videos based on which the students had to use the right set of words to describe different emotions.
Combining tools helps bring variety and also helps children to think in different ways thus enabling them to build the critical and analytical thinking skills along their learning journeys.
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