Texting Makes Kids Smarter, Claims Language Professor

Having been condemned as a surefire way to make children dumb, texting is considered by many people not to be the best way for kids to communicate.

However, one linguistic expert, professor David Crystal from Bangor University in Wales, thinks it’s actually a great tool and resource to help kids become more proficient when it comes to literacy.

According to the professor, as children are reading essentially more than ever before, albeit perhaps not the most meaningful content, regular texting actually helps with writing, reading skills, and spelling.

While Crystal is an avid author, having written more than 100 books, he makes a good point when he says that the new generation is reading and typing a lot.

As he said at the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature in Dubai recently, “People say text messaging will harm your spelling. No…It helps you to spell better. This is because it focuses your mind on the connection between sound and letters. The best texters are the best spellers. People say young people don’t read and write any more.They may not necessarily read… Shakespeare or Charles Dickens, but have you ever seen a teenager not reading? Young people read probably more than I did when I was that age.”

The “digital age,” as the professor calls it, has heralded what he termed a “linguistic revolution,” as over 2,000 new words have developed as a result of all the texting.

Crystal’s opinion is an interesting one, as he himself is an expert on the English language. The professor also points out that never before have so many children in so many different countries been able to access literature as they can via their smartphones.

Nevertheless, in 2014, it was claimed that people in Britain spent more time on cell phones and computers than they did sleeping.

Do you agree with Professor Crystal that the advent of texting is a good thing for the literacy skills of young people? Do you think people were better off without smartphones?

Let us know your thoughts on the matter in the comments feed below.