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Text messaging acronyms and other Internet language shortcuts are often blamed for declining reading skills among the younger set. Is this a fair assessment? Has the Internet really contributed to the decline of reading skills?

As a mother of three school-age children, I would have to heartily say no. For our children, the use of the Internet is as natural as using the card catalog at the library was for us a generation ago. If anything, I have seen the use of the Internet increase my children's use of the English language. I have seen them use Facebook to communicate with their friends, as well as emailing every day. For them, the Internet is their tool for communication. They learn simply by doing. They figure things out by trial and error, and as a result have spent more time reading, writing, and practicing their language skills than ever before.

Many public schools in the USnow give students access to multiple educational resources from the school district's own web page. For example, elementary students can review spelling words, play games and take practice tests, all from the comfort of their home computer. Teachers assign research that requires the utilization of Internet search engines, giving children the experience of looking up and sorting through information.

. In general, society has rapidly changed over the past several years. During the 2008 Presidential Election in the United States, blogging became more popular than ever as a means of communicating, promoting candidates and protesting ideology. The Internet is the place to go to find news and information. Would we blame our children's reading deficiencies on reading The New York Times? Of course not. The Internet is today's newspaper. Imagine the effectiveness of Thomas Paine if he had been a blog writer!

As a parent, there are certainly things we can do to maximize our children's benefit from the Internet. When one of my kids needs help spelling a word; they are directed to an online dictionary for the reference. Recently my middle-schooler completed a difficult assignment by accessing the Internet source his teacher had suggested. As I watch the kids navigate the World Wide Web, I am impressed at their ability to sort information, find relevant sources, and disregard nonsense. These skills have been developed over time as they have grown up with the use of the Internet.

Ask a homeschooling parent how valuable the Internet can be. From home-based classrooms, home schoolers have access to the world through educational resources, on-line books and even distance learning sites that compose their curriculum. There are countless resources available at the touch of a button.

Would banning a child from the Internet make him a better reader? Logically, it would not. Low literacy skills have plagued the US for many years. Government agencies have struggled to develop strategies to combat poor reading performance.

There are certainly negatives to the Internet; but as our world evolves more and more into a global society through the use of the Internet, our children will continue to adapt and become more and more literate. The Internet has opened the world up to knowledge like no other time in history. It is the printing press of the present day. As with anything, it should be monitored carefully by parents to ensure proper usage; but the bigger picture paints an exciting new world for our children where information is accessible to everyone, communication is instant, and even education itself is available more people than ever before.

Learn more about this author, Stephanie Durden Edwards.
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