Story at a glance
- When reading on screens, we may tend to skim rather than read deeply.
- This can affect how we process the information.
- For young students learning to read, reading print materials plays an important role in reading success and brain development.
As schools prepare to reopen, go completely online or try both in person and virtual through hybrid approaches, most children will be using screens this school year as a regular part of their learning. That could potentially have long-term effects on their brains, experts warn. In an opinion piece in The Guardian, Maryanne Wolf, who is the director of the Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners and Social Justice at the University of California, Los Angeles Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, writes about how screen-based learning could affect child development and adult reading skills.
The research is still in the early stages when it comes to understanding how digital-based learning may affect the development of children’s reading brains, writes Wolf. But based on how differently we read print materials versus online materials, this could be something worth paying attention to.
One behavior that Wolf discusses is skimming while reading on a screen instead of giving deeper attention. You might be skimming this article right now. The issue with this is that we’re constantly distracted during this process. We may not be processing information into our memories in the same way and we may not be thinking about things as deeply.
For students, that could affect how well they learn and retain information. It could also affect how early readers learn to read. One study suggests that print establishes better attention than screens, although the authors also say that the flickering of the screen may affect brain processing. Another study looked at activation of the part of the brain that corresponds with letter–speech sound in young children. The brain imaging results suggest that this sensitivity is established early in the reading process and print plays an important role in it.
In a study that compares print versus screens, researchers surveyed 19 children and their families. They asked about independent reading time and screen-based media time. They then compared connections between the visual word-forming area and visual and cognitive control areas in brain imaging scans. They found the screen time was correlated with less connectivity, though it should be noted that reading and screen times were self-reported and could have been inaccurate.
A concept Wolf discusses is the biliterate brain, meaning that the brain is trained for both digital and print literacy. Wolf writes, “The great challenge now is to learn how to use both print and digital mediums to their best advantage for all.”
Students are faced with a school year of uncertainty and likely much more time in virtual classrooms. There are also many students who are not getting the education they need, whether they are special needs students who are told to follow the same screen-based learning or students from low-income families who don’t have access to reliable internet. This will be especially challenging for children who may not have access or have less access to physical books and whose parents or guardians may not have as much time to read with them.
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