Interactive Books on CD-ROM

Q: I see lots of familiar children's stories available as interactive books on CD-ROMs; can they really help kids learn to read?

A: Some can indeed help beginning readers, but many interactive stories simply bring cartoon-style entertainment -- including newly released kids' movies -- to the computer desktop.

Interactive Books for Young Readers

• Words on the screen. A surprising number of CD-ROM "books" don't reproduce any words on screen. And that's not much help to beginning readers, since kids can't follow along with the narrative unless they can see the words.
• Phrase-by-phrase highlighting. To help children understand that a story is read word by word, from left to right, software should let them "track" the text by highlighting phrases as they're spoken.
• A book in the box. Good interactive stories provide a real book along with the software. That way, you can cuddle up and read the story at bedtime. And as children gain familiarity with it, they can read the book to you.
• Hot spots in the text (not just the pictures). When kids click words to reveal hidden surprises, they quickly come to recognize those words. And they pay more attention to all the words on the screen.
• Other books in the series. If an interactive storybook really charms your child, chances are that he'll be tempted by other books featuring the same character, or other books by the same author.
• Stories you like. When you like the stories on the CD-ROMs you buy, you're likely to spend more time with your child at the computer, and more time rereading those stories at bedtime. And the time you spend reading with your child is the most important investment you can make.

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