Development of reading ability is facilitated by intensive exposure to a digital children's picture book.

Nobuo Masataka

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00396

Abstract

Here the author presents preliminary evidence supporting the possibility that the reading ability of 4-year-old children can be improved as a consequence of intensive exposure to the narrative in a digital picture book over a consecutive 5-day period. When creating the digital version used here, two additional functions were provided with it. First, the entire story was voice-recorded by a professional narrator and programmed so that it was played as narration from the speaker of an iPad. Next, as the narration of each digitized page proceeded, the character exactly corresponding to that pronounced by the narrator at that moment became highlighted in red. When the subjects' literacy capability with respect to the syllabic script of the Japanese language (kana) was evaluated before and after the exposure, their performance score was found to increase after the exposure to the digital book, whereas such a change was not recorded in children who experienced exposure to the printed version of the same picture book read to them by their mother. These effects were confirmed when the children were retested 4 weeks later. Although preliminary, the current study represents the first experimental evidence for a positive effect of exposure to digital books upon any aspect of child development.

Highlights

Entertainment by looking at picture books and listening to their narration is enjoyed universally by young children and their caregivers (Aram and Aviram, 2009)
A more recent survey in the US found that the proportion of American teenagers who had read an e-book increased from 16 to 23% between 2012 and 2013, but that when it came to sharing books or reading with a child, most American adults who had read both print and e-books regarded print books as the better option (Pew Research Center, 2013)
The results of the present experiment revealed that the average number of kana characters each child could correctly read was increased between the Pre-test and Post-test only in the Digital Book Group

Summary

Introduction

Entertainment by looking at picture books and listening to their narration is enjoyed universally by young children and their caregivers (Aram and Aviram, 2009). A more recent survey in the US found that the proportion of American teenagers who had read an e-book increased from 16 to 23% between 2012 and 2013, but that when it came to sharing books or reading with a child, most American adults who had read both print and e-books regarded print books as the better option (Pew Research Center, 2013). Given these findings, digital books appear somewhat detrimental to children.

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Conclusion