Fire the e-Babysitter, Use the Tablet Together Instead

"Parenting in the Age of the iPad — Super Heroes and Sidekicks," posted on the Reading Rainbow blog February 7, gives another fine list of tips for parents and caregivers about using tablets together with kids. Here Carolina Nugent describes how to "transform your mobile device from a babysitter to a sidekick" — in which you, the adult, are the child's superhero.

Nugent, director of education for the educational app store KinderTown, joins a chorus of experts in advising adults to "co-play," or use apps, games and e-books together with kids rather than just to keep little ones busy on their own. Research shows that young children learn best through adult-child interaction, and Nugent focuses on the laughing and sharing part, noting that "cuddle and snuggle time can happen with a tablet too."

She also reminds parents that apps can spark creativity in the "real world": "Many of the drawing, games, and story apps can easily be extended with a stack of paper and a box of markers," she writes. Kids could retell their favorite digital stories in homemade paper story books, or make a dictionary of words they learned using a vocabulary app. The experience of a digital app, game or book doesn't need to be limited to the digital device itself.