Electronic books versus adult readers: effects on children's emergent literacy as a function of social class

We compared the effects of children's reading of an educational electronic storybook on their emergent literacy with those of being read the same story in its printed version by an adult. We investigated 128 5‐ to 6‐year‐old kindergarteners; 64 children from each of two socio‐economic status (S...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of computer assisted learning 2007-06, Vol.23 (3), p.248-259
Main Authors: Korat, O., Shamir, A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Child
Child development
Childrens Literature
Comparative Analysis
Developmental psychology
Electronic Publishing
electronic storybook
Emergent Literacy
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Intervention
Kindergarten
kindergarteners
Low Income Groups
Printed Materials
Program Effectiveness
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Reading Aloud to Others
Reading Comprehension
Reading Skills
SES
Socioeconomic Influences
Vocabulary Development
Word Recognition
Young Children
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We compared the effects of children's reading of an educational electronic storybook on their emergent literacy with those of being read the same story in its printed version by an adult. We investigated 128 5‐ to 6‐year‐old kindergarteners; 64 children from each of two socio‐economic status (SES) groups: low (LSES) and middle (MSES). In each group, children were randomly assigned to one of three subgroups. The two intervention groups included three book reading sessions each; children in one group individually read the electronic book; in the second group, the children were read the same printed book by an adult; children in the third group, which served as a control, received the regular kindergarten programme. Pre‐ and post‐intervention emergent literacy measures included vocabulary, word recognition and phonological awareness. Compared with the control group, the children's vocabulary scores in both intervention groups improved following reading activity. Children from both interventions groups and both SES groups showed a similarly good level of story comprehension. In both SES groups, compared with the control group, children's phonological awareness and word recognition did not improve following both reading interventions. Implications for future research and for education are discussed.
ISSN:0266-4909
1365-2729
DOI:10.1111/j.1365-2729.2006.00213.x