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Interactive Books for Children

Rujuta Borkar
The following piece of writing will shed more light on the topic 'Interactive Children's Books' and will get into a little more detail of the subjects that surround it. Read to know more.
Have you ever been to a kindergarten lately? If you have, then you will have noticed how the class is decorated. There are decorations and charts, pop up materials and craft walls, and a whole lot more. Why is it all there? Because that's how kids learn better and it helps in effective child development.
Their learning is not limited to mere rote and dry books, but rather is a more interactive process that involves the working of most senses.
Interactive children's books is one such device that offers children the option of not merely dry learning and repeating to learn a concept, but rather of making the concept interesting for them so that they learn it without difficulty and remember it for years.
It is the same logic why we remember our nursery rhymes to this day, because the way they were taught to us was so interesting that it is almost always difficult to forget these easily. The same, however, cannot be said of our other lessons that we learn through the different years of school.
Most of these lessons we forget, and that is because we haven't understood them in a manner such that the concept becomes clear and it stays with us forever. As we age, we tend to forget that the learning process is highly influenced by vision and other such mediums rather than simply reading and trying to understand it.
With the passage of years and the progression into higher classes, these mediums are usually discarded and a more teacher-student approach is developed that focuses on notes and discussions. That is where children's interactive books are different and help develop effective learning styles for children.

Children's Interactive Books

With the inclusion of the word interactive, we will have got a vague idea that there is interaction involved. But how can a book interact with the kids? Interactive books for kids are formed in such a way that they make use of several materials to make the book more interesting and easier for the kids to understand.
That is why there are several best selling children's books in this category. These books do not remain limited to merely words and print but include varied mediums like color, pop ups, and the like such that the kids not only have fun with it, but also learn along the way, without even realizing that they are learning something.

The Devices Used

There are several devices used that make these books interactive. These include movable books with wheels, pop up pictures (much like greeting cards) pull downs (with a flap that when pulled at, reveals something), flaps (that have something hidden under it) and others.
The way they work is that they keep the students interested in the lesson that is being taught by giving them other activities to do. The usage of a lot of texture and colors is what keeps the interest levels high and about.

Types of Interactive Books

Coloring Books

Coloring books are one of the most favorite activities for the kids and along with reading a story, the coloring makes it more interesting and the kids don't give it up.

Pop-up Books

These kinds of books involve using techniques whereby the pages fold in different ways and can be molded and opened to create 3D effects that seem like the characters are coming to life. These use techniques like flaps, pull ups, etc. This ensures that the child never gets bored and continues to learn better.

Hidden Objects Books

Finding objects that have been camouflaged on a particular page and carrying the story forward through that is one of the most popular mediums of these books.

Touch and Feel Books

These are usually used for preschool kids with the aim of developing in them the interest to keep learning. The use of different textures like soft fur stuck on a bird's picture and then the kids being made to touch it is one of the best ways to get them to learn.

Types of Interactive Children's Stories

These interactive tools are used at the base of children's interactive stories to bring out the essence of the story and teach them more through it. The advancement in technology has led to the creation of books that employ these techniques of interactive tools. There are also children's interactive reading websites that have been developed for this purpose.
Some of the famous stories in these children's interactive books are:
  • Pat the Bunny ~ Dorothy Kunhardt
  • I Spy ~ Walter Wick and Jean Marzollo
  • Where's Wally? ~ Martin Handford
  • Christmas in New York ~ Chuck Fischer
And that is what interactive children's books are all about. They teach and help learn better by making the learning process a really interesting one. The next time you're out in a children's bookstore, look around carefully and get an interactive book for your kid. Or go through a dedicated website meant for this especially. Your kid will love you for it.