No App to Replace Your Lap

Kids, and Books and Screens and Brains

How Do Books Affect Your Child’s Brain?  8 Questions We Asked the CEO of Literati by Sara Sargent, Paper Lantern Publishing Group.

Summary:  by Diane Davies

This article is a Q & A between Sara Sargent of Paper Lantern Publishing Group and Jessica Ewing, CEO of Literati a subscription book club for children.  Jessica Ewing is a graduate of Stanford University in Cognitive Science. 

Both women agree that taking away screens and reading to children during their formative years is the best thing for their brains.  Ms. Ewing tells us that there is now incredible science to back this up.  Through brain scans and fMRI it has been learned that developing brains thrive on stimulation that puts the brain in the “Goldilocks” zone.  Media – like television and animation and screens the stimulation is “too hot”. This stimulation does not make connections fire in the children’s brains.  The intake is too easy.  Pure audio is “too cold”.  It does not provide enough stimulation to make new neural connections.  It is too hard for the developing brain.  According to Ewing, picture books are the right mixture of verbal and visual cues resulting in the healthiest brain development.  The concrete experience of touching and holding a physical book is critical for memory to be stored. 

What makes a book good for the brain?  Any book that a child loves to read is a good book.  If you are being asked to read a book over and over again is a sign that you’ve found something the brain needs.  Having some choice is good for kids however too much choice can become overwhelming for both kids and parents.  With kid’s books you are shopping not only to appeal to existing interests but to create new interests as well.

The rest of the article goes into explaining how Literati, a try-before-you buy book club service for children ages 0 – 12.  To learn more about the service you can go to literartibooks.com