Texting is good for children

While reading Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel’s blog, I came across a link to this research by Clare Woods (Coventry University) on the relationship between texting and reading ability & phonological awareness.  This topic is brought up in every undergraduate and graduate class that I teach so I was interested to read the following:

“We began studying in this area initially to see if there was any evidence of association between text abbreviation use and literacy skills at all, after such a negative portrayal of the activity in the media.  We were surprised to learn that not only was the association strong, but that textism use was actually driving the development of phonological awareness and reading skill in children.  Texting also appears to be a valuable form of contact with written English for many children, which enables them to practice reading and spelling on a daily basis.”