Changing Trends in Bedtime Story Reading Habits of Children: A Comparative Study of African and European Children’s Literature
Keywords:
African, bedtime story reading, children, European, literatureAbstract
Children are often inspired by tales, rhymes and songs of various kinds globally. Mostly, children in developed countries are exposed to cartoons online and puzzles that tell stories. Before the emergence of modern technology in Africa, parents and teachers spent time with children under ten years telling them stories that were so inspiring and motivating. Children used those moments to build on their vocabularies and also learn great deal of lessons from such stories. Today, technological advancement has influenced the moments that children share with their teachers and parents in listening to stories. Hard copies of bedtime stories with attractive pictorial presentations on some events in the content and on the cover gradually replaced the traditional way of sending these stories across to children. The study adopted a desktop literature review method (desk study). This study further used a humanistic approach to textual analysis while researching and writing this essay, compared to a behavioral approach, which would involve evaluating the bedtime story reading habits of children with the influence of changing trends in technology. The drawing and interpretation of observations and sense which is not a quantitative impact evaluation, was important in this context.
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