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Jackie Chaney, an elementary teacher for the past 16 years, currently presides over a classroom of 25 2nd graders. She professes to love this stage in a students鈥� academic career, one that historically has been marked by growth in literacy, whereby word recognition begins to become automatic, fluency accelerates, and classroom teachers double down on building students鈥� ability to focus and read independently for a sustained period of time.
But in recent years, Chaney has noticed a significant shift in this early literacy journey.
鈥淲ith the 鈥榤icrowave world鈥� that we live in nowadays, students want that immediate engagement and quick response. They do not want to wait and explore novels, delve into characters and settings, and enjoy the twists and turns of plots,鈥� said Chaney, who teaches at New Town Elementary in Owings Mills, Md.
Chaney鈥檚 lament is not unique among today鈥檚 classroom teachers, who are tasked with teaching the foundations of reading to the first generation of true digital natives鈥攃hildren who have been exposed to the bright, blinking, fast-moving screens of electronic devices from birth, or close to it.
It鈥檚 now becoming a concern for researchers, too, who are seeking to better understand the effects of early exposure to electronic devices on children鈥檚 capacity to engage in and understand what they read. Their findings to date, though limited, create cause for concern.
鈥淭he big question for us as neurobiological researchers is: How much screen exposure and what kids are doing while they鈥檙e exposed [to screens] affects brain development?鈥� said neurobiologist Tzipi Horowitz-Kraus, whose research expertise focuses on neural circuits that underlie language and reading acquisition.
How early neural connections underpin literacy
To understand how early exposure to electronic devices may affect children鈥檚 later ability to develop reading stamina, it helps to first know what happens in the brain in order to be able to read.
鈥淵ou need to direct your visual attention to the letter you鈥檙e seeing. This language network is also related to phonology鈥攖he sounds that letters make. These two processes need to be matched in time, or there will be a lag that manifests in reading difficulties,鈥� said Horowitz-Kraus, an associate professor in the neuropsychology department at the Kennedy Krieger Institute and in the psychiatry and behavioral sciences department at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
This synchrony does not happen immediately. 鈥淚t takes some time to match what you鈥檙e seeing in your mind to the matched letter,鈥� she said. 鈥淥ver time, and with exposure, most children are able to automatically see and interpret letters and, eventually, chunks of letters.鈥�
Exposure comes in the form of being read to and practicing reading, she said. Students generally reach automaticity between kindergarten and 2nd grade.
When that鈥檚 delayed, the cognitive resources to comprehend what鈥檚 being read are not available, explained Horowitz-Kraus. And when a child struggles to read and comprehend, it is more difficult to persist in reading鈥攁 key driver in reading stamina. This consequence can have a 鈥渟nowball鈥� effect, making children less likely to persist in developing the skills needed to develop comprehension and, subsequently, reading stamina.
Electronic devices distract, overstimulate their youngest users
Given the importance of those connections, a first concern is that screens can easily distract a young person from focusing on print, noted Horowitz-Kraus. 鈥淪creens are super-fun, super-quick, super-stimulating,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he competition they present is not easy to ignore.鈥�
The introduction to electronic devices is happening at ever-younger ages, said literacy expert Maryanne Wolf. And especially for very young children, those under 4, there鈥檚 a secondary concern: overstimulation.
鈥淕o in any mall and you鈥檒l see a 6- to 12-month old, the spinal column and neck having just become erect. They鈥檙e watching [a digital screen], becoming overstimulated,鈥� said Wolf, 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.
Like Horowitz-Kraus, Wolf noted the allure of electronic devices. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e more engaging than a print book,鈥� she said. 鈥淥n the other hand, they provide a passivity of engagement. It is overutilizing what we call the novelty reflex that human beings have. This is the last thing we want for child development, because we鈥檙e wanting them to learn to focus. Instead, they are learning to be distracted.鈥�
Even when presented as a host of 鈥渓earning activities,鈥� electronic devices do not benefit toddlers cognitively, she said. 鈥淭he screens move too fast for them. At that age, children need an adult to sit beside them to mediate the information, to communicate the information.鈥�
Study shows less brain connectivity among heavy consumers of digital media
Horowitz-Kraus鈥� research is now beginning to uncover clues suggesting that screen time itself may interfere with reading processes.
In addition to her appointment at Johns Hopkins, Horowitz-Kraus is an associate professor and director of the educational neuroimaging group at Technion鈥揑srael Institute of Technology, where she is among the world鈥檚 preeminent researchers studying how children鈥檚 brains work when engaged in reading versus electronic media.
In one such study, conducted on a small sample of 19 8- to 12-year-olds, Horowitz-Kraus and her colleagues examined the connectivity of brain regions known to be critical for reading. They first asked parents to report the number of hours their children spent on independent reading versus screen-based media time (including smartphones, tablets, desktop or laptop computers, and television).
... We鈥檙e wanting [children] to learn to focus. Instead, they are learning to be distracted.
Then, the children underwent magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, testing to assess their 鈥渞esting-state connectivity鈥� between brain regions known to be critical to reading and cognition.
The imaging scans revealed that time spent reading was 鈥減ositively correlated with higher functional connectivity between the seed area and left-sided language, visual and cognitive control regions,鈥� the authors wrote in the study, published in the international medical journal . Conversely, brain images of children who had higher reported screen time engagement showed lower connectivity between these regions related to reading.
鈥淭he two regions did not communicate together,鈥� Horowitz-Kraus said. 鈥淚n neuroscience, there is a rule: Fire together, wired together.鈥�
Digital reading is not conducive to building reading stamina
The studies Horowitz-Kraus and other researchers have done to date on the impact of exposure to electronic devices only reveal so much.
鈥淭here are limitations in what we know about the ultimate effects of screen time,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hat we, as a society and researchers, need is a longitudinal study that measures and tracks the level of exposure to screens, and what exactly a child is doing on screen, from birth to 18.鈥�
Still, what she has discovered鈥攖hat brain connectivity known to enhance reading and associated cognition appears to be weaker among children who are reading print less and engaging in screen time more鈥攊s concerning, especially when added to other evidence about how reading on the screen compares with print reading.
Multiple studies show that both young children and college-age students seem to remember fewer concrete details when reading online text compared to printed text, although some embedded digital features can be helpful.
Wolf calls the process 鈥渟kim to inform,鈥� which goes against the deep attention required for the components that make up reading comprehension鈥攕uch as connecting background knowledge to new information, making analogies, drawing inferences, and engaging in the perspectives of others.
鈥淲hen you scan on screen or learn to read on a screen, you may well skip the development of these processes or their use,鈥� said Wolf. 鈥淎nd their use is the penultimate bridge to the reading sanctuary.鈥�
