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The study tests the efficacy of a new sort of digital picture book. It includes camera movements to guide children's visual attention through the pictures and the possibility to control page-turning and the pace at which the camera moves through pictures. There were 56 participants (M[subscript age] = 60.34 months, SD = 6.24) randomly assigned to three conditions: still images, camera movements (no control over pace), and camera movements (control over pace). For the 50% of children least proficient in language skills, sparingly adding well-chosen camera movements to the illustrations helps children understand the story. In addition, the camera movements' effect can be enhanced by enabling control over the pace at which new information appears. Particularly the 50% low-language proficiency children benefited from camera movements and spending more time processing information.

Just beginning to understand the potentials new technologies might bring to the learning environments of young children, we invited authors to submit articles that investigate multimedia sources and their effect on learning settings. Two main themes emerged--how digitization changes the learning environment and adult-child interaction in particular and which digital affordances enrich digital materials and how these changes affect learning. We finish with "alerts" to further explore more the hidden potentials of new technologies and how routines such as book reading might change and become more effective in some respects.

In many schools, independent silent reading of self-selected books is used to promote reading. However, self-selection may be insufficient to counter negative reading experiences, particularly when students choose books not attuned to their reading level and interest. Two studies experimentally tested whether personalized expert guidance when selecting books could prevent a reading attitude decline. Study 1 focused on readers in prevocational secondary education (Grades 7 and 8; N = 136). Study 2 included younger readers from primary education (Grades 4-6, N = 99). Students in the experimental condition met with a librarian to discuss book choices every two weeks for three months. In both studies, the intervention stabilized the reading attitude decline, although, in Study 1, only for more advanced readers. In Study 2, reading comprehension of the most proficient readers also improved. This indicates that guidance in selecting books can preserve students' reading attitude and increase reading proficiency growth.

This meta-analysis examines the inconsistent findings across experimental studies that compared children's learning outcomes with digital and paper books. We quantitatively reviewed 39 studies reported in 30 articles (n = 1,812 children) and compared children's story comprehension and vocabulary learning in relation to medium (reading on paper versus on-screen), design enhancements in digital books, the presence of a dictionary, and adult support for children aged between 1 and 8 years. The comparison of digital versus paper books that only differed by digitization showed lower comprehension scores for digital books. Adults' mediation during print books' reading was more effective than the enhancements in digital books read by children independently. However, with story-congruent enhancements, digital books outperformed paper books. An embedded dictionary had no or negative effect on children's story comprehension but positively affected children's vocabulary learning. Findings are discussed in relation to the cognitive load theory and practical design implications.

Book giveaway programs provide free books to families with infants to encourage caregivers to begin reading to their children during infancy. This meta-analysis of 44 studies retrieved from 43 articles tests the effects of three major book giveaway programs: Bookstart (n = 11), Reach Out and Read (n = 18), and Imagination Library (n = 15). Effect sizes were aggregated within two domains--home literacy environment and literacy-related behavior and skills--before being averaged across studies. The findings corroborate the assumption that book giveaway programs promote children's home literacy environment (d = 0.31, 95% CI [0.23, 0.38], k = 30), which subsequently results in more interest in reading and children scoring higher on measures of literacy-related skills prior to and during the early years of school (d = 0.29, 95% CI [0.23, 0.35], k = 23).

The present article provides an overview of the best-selling apps for the age range of 0-8 years under various categories, including 'Kids', 'Books', 'Educational games', 'Family games' and 'Word games' in the two major application stores (Google Play and iTunes App Store) in four economically diverse European countries: Hungary, Turkey, Greece and the Netherlands. As tablets seem to be a substantial part of children's leisure activities, and thus apps might play an important role in their development, we conducted a content analysis to highlight two issues: the educational value of the most popular children's apps and the fine-tuning of apps to the local culture and language of non-English speaking countries. There is a large overlap between the best-selling apps in the four countries; in fact, half of the apps appear among the most popular lists in more than one country. Consequently, most children's apps do not include any oral language and, if they do, they are not available in the local language. Furthermore, the results show that a substantial part of the apps supported early literacy skills. In the majority of apps teaching literacy, although advertised for the youngest, the focus of instruction was more suited for school-age children.

We compared students from schools with an enriched school library--that is, one with a larger and more up-to-date book collection--with students from schools with a typical school library. We tested effects of an enriched school library on reading motivation, reading frequency, and academic skills. Fourth- and fifth-grade students of 14 schools with an enriched library (n = 272) were compared to fourth and fifth graders from 10 control schools (n = 411). Assignment to the experimental group was external and not determined by participants within schools. Students from schools with enriched libraries scored on average half a standard deviation higher on a standardized reading comprehension test than students from control schools. Mediation analysis revealed that for girls, this effect may have been obtained as a result of an increase in reading motivation and reading frequency. For boys, only reading frequency was a significant mediator.

In this digital era, a fundamental challenge is to design digital reading materials in such a way that they improve children's reading skills. Since reading books is challenging for many fifth graders--particularly for those genetically susceptible to attention problems--the researchers hypothesized that guidance from a digital Pedagogical Agent (PA) could improve students' reading motivation and incidental vocabulary learning. Using a sample of 147 fifth-grade students, the researchers carried out a randomized control trial with three groups of students reading: (a) hardcopy (print) books, (b) digital books, and (c) digital books with a PA. For students with a genetic predisposition to attention problems, carriers of the DRD4 seven-repeat allele, the PA supported their incidental vocabulary learning. For noncarriers, there were no effects of the digital reading materials or the PA.

This study explored longitudinal associations between early shared reading at 2 to 3 years of age and children's later academic achievement. It examined the mediating role of children's vocabulary and early academic skills, and the moderating effects of family's socioeconomic status. Data were drawn from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (n = 4,768). Academic achievement was assessed at 8 to 9 years of age via standardized national test scores of literacy and mathematics achievement. Results indicated that early shared reading was associated with children's academic achievement directly and indirectly through receptive vocabulary and early academic skills. Also, the frequency of early shared reading predicted the outcome measures, over and above other home learning activities. Associations were stronger among low and middle socioeconomic status groups compared to the high socioeconomic status group. We conclude that shared reading offers unique opportunities for adults to teach young children new words and concepts.

This study tested how name writing affects young children's emergent writing. Beginning with a group of 96 Dutch children ages 3 1/2-5, we selected more-advanced children who were producing strings of conventional letters but, apart from very few words, no correct or readable (invented) spellings (N = 35). All children recruited from middle-to-high socioeconomic status (SES) Dutch families were asked to write, in their native Dutch language, their name as well as a set of 16 words such as "baby" and "flower" that were not likely to have been practiced before. The children's control for writing their own proper name influenced spellings of unpracticed words. Fifty-two percent of the letters used to represent unpracticed words were letters from the child's proper name and, more importantly, the first letter of the name was the first one to be written phonetically. These effects of name writing were replicated in a second study with another sample of slightly older children (ages 4-6) from low SES Dutch families (N = 79). We speculate on factors that may explain why a shift to phonetic writing starts with the first letter of a child's name. (Contains 2 tables.)

A meta-analysis was conducted on the effects of technology-enhanced stories for young children's literacy development when compared to listening to stories in more traditional settings like storybook reading. A small but significant additional benefit of technology was found for story comprehension (g+ = 0.17) and expressive vocabulary (g+ = 0.20), based on data from 2,147 children in 43 studies. When investigating the different characteristics of technology-enhanced stories, multimedia features like animated pictures, music, and sound effects were found beneficial. In contrast, interactive elements like hotspots, games, and dictionaries were found to be distracting. Especially for children disadvantaged because of less stimulating family environments, multimedia features were helpful and interactive features were detrimental. Findings are discussed from the perspective of cognitive processing theories.

Children showing poor executive functioning may not fully benefit from learning experiences at home and school and may lag behind in literacy skills. This hypothesis was tested in a sample of 276 kindergarten children. Executive functions and literacy skills were tested at about 61?months and again a year later. In line with earlier studies, correlations between both skills were significant at age 5?years, but the predictive value of executive functions on alphabetic skills weakened or disappeared 1?year later. Assuming that executive functions are in development at this age and change has to be taken into account, we applied fixed effects analyses (FEAs) to repeated measures of alphabetic skills and executive functions. FEAs demonstrated that changes in children's alphabetic skills concur with changes in executive functions, thus strengthening inferences about a causal relationship. Executive functions are unstable in the early stages of cognitive development and one-time measures cannot predict their impact on reading 1?year later. Consequences of this new insight are discussed.

Novel word learning is reported to be problematic for children with severe language impairments (SLI). In this study, we tested electronic storybooks as a tool to support vocabulary acquisition in SLI children. In Experiment 1, 29 kindergarten SLI children heard four e-books each four times: (a) two stories were presented as video books with motion pictures, music, and sounds, and (b) two stories included only static illustrations without music or sounds. Two other stories served as the control condition. Both static and video books were effective in increasing knowledge of unknown words, but static books were most effective. Experiment 2 was designed to examine which elements in video books interfere with word learning: video images or music or sounds. A total of 23 kindergarten SLI children heard 8 storybooks each four times: (a) two static stories without music or sounds, (b) two static stories with music or sounds, (c) two video stories without music or sounds, and (d) two video books with music or sounds. Video images and static illustrations were equally effective, but the presence of music or sounds moderated word learning. In children with severe SLI, background music interfered with learning. Problems with speech perception in noisy conditions may be an underlying factor of SLI and should be considered in selecting teaching aids and learning environments.

Background: The dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4) has been linked to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and reading disorders. In this study, we examined whether diminished anticipatory dopamine cell firing--typical of the long variant of the DRD4 allele--is related to emergent and advanced alphabetic skills, and whether executive attention is a mediator between this allele and alphabetic skills. Method: We tested alphabetic skills in a normative sample of 159 children in both kindergarten and Grade 1, and executive attention 1 year earlier. Cheek cells were collected and genomic DNA was isolated from the samples using the Chemagic buccal swab kit on a chemagen Module I workstation. Results: Thirty-seven percent of the children were carriers of at least one DRD4 7-repeat allele. Carriers of the long variant scored lower on alphabetic skills, and executive attention appeared to be a mediator of the relation between characteristics of DRD4 and alphabetic skills in kindergarten and first grade. Conclusion: This study shows how a genetic factor which has been shown to relate to variation in attention and regulatory behavior can explain delays in alphabetic skills. A practical implication is that in many cases early interventions should not only target reading skills, but also support children's engagement in tasks. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

Living Letters is an adaptive game designed to promote children's combining of how the proper name sounds with their knowledge of how the name looks. A randomized controlled trial (RCT) was used to experimentally test whether priming for attending to the sound-symbol relationship in the proper name can reduce the risk for developing reading problems in the first two grades of primary education. A Web-based computer program with more intensive practice than could be offered by teachers affords activities that prompt young children to pay attention to print as an object of investigation. The study focused on a sub-sample of 110 five-year-old Dutch children from 15 schools seriously delayed in code-related knowledge. Outcomes support the need for early remedial computer programs, and demonstrate that, without a brief but intensive treatment, more children from the at-risk group lack the capacity to benefit from beginning reading instruction in the early grades. With an early intervention in kindergarten, children with code-related skills delays gained about half a standard deviation on standardized tests at the end of grade 2. (Contains 1 figure and 5 tables.)

In a randomized control trial, the authors tested whether short- and long-term effects of an early literacy intervention are moderated by mild perinatal adversities in accordance with differential susceptibility theory. One-hundred 5-year-old children (58% male) who scored at or below the 30th percentile on early literacy measures were randomized to a Web-based remedial early literacy program Living Letters or a treated control group. Parents gave written informed consent to access the perinatal data of their children at the Perinatal Register in the Netherlands. Twenty-one children were, at birth, small for gestational age (between the 2.5th and 10th percentiles) or late preterm (between 34 and 37 weeks, 6 days). In this group with mild perinatal adversities, intervention children outperformed the control group immediately after the intervention and after 8 months of formal reading instruction, but a similar effect of the computerized literacy program in children without mild perinatal adversities was absent. In line with the theory of differential susceptibility, children with mild perinatal adversities seem to be more open to environmental input, for better "and" for worse. (Contains 1 figure, 5 tables, and 2 footnotes.)

A lack of familiarity with the language of teaching is blamed for illiteracy rates beyond 40% among people who live in nations in Africa or Asia in which dozens of languages are spoken. For a critical test of the importance of familiarity with the language in which initial reading is practiced, we took the Zambian situation as a natural experiment and tested effects of a fit between the local language spoken in the homes and playground and the language officially designated as language of instruction. We selected 12 state-funded primary schools from three districts likely to differ in match between children's language and language of instruction. From each school we took at random 10 high- and 10 low achievers, in all 240 pupils, and tested them after 18 months of instruction. Pupils make more progress in word reading fluency in a Zambian language and English when basic reading skills are practiced in the children's most familiar Zambian language. Research into other facets of reading instruction is required to balance various possibilities for increasing efficacy of reading instruction.

The goals of this study were to examine (a) whether extratextual vocabulary instructions embedded in electronic storybooks facilitated word learning over reading alone and (b) whether instructional formats that required children to invest more effort were more effective than formats that required less effort. A computer-based "assistant" was added to electronic storybooks. The assistant posed extratextual vocabulary questions. Questions were presented in a multiple-choice format so that children could respond by clicking on the picture that best represented the target word. In Experiment 1 (N = 20), children read stories with and without questions. Children learned more words when reading with questions than without. Expressive vocabulary was particularly affected by question insertion. In Experiment 2 (N = 27), we used two methods for teaching words: one requiring more effort on the part of children (questions) and one requiring less effort ("hotspots" that provide definitions). Results revealed that questions were more beneficial than just providing a definition or synonym of the target word. Implications for designing new e-book apps are discussed. (Contains 6 figures and 3 tables.)

The major purpose of this study was to test how preliterate learners use illustrations in storybooks to understand a story. Subjects were 23 five-year-old low-SES children, learning Dutch as a second language. Each child was exposed four times to a digital picture storybook. Five books were used and counterbalanced over children and repetitions. During book exposure, eye movements were registered using a remote eye-tracking system. To test whether eye fixations matched the text we scored how often and how long children fixated visual elements in the illustrations that the story text highlighted. We also scored how often human and non-human objects were fixated. In line with the hypothesis that eye fixations are time locked to referential expressions in the text, visual elements that the text highlighted were fixated more often and longer than elements in illustrations not highlighted in the story text. We also found evidence that, at times, inspection of illustrations followed an autonomous pattern. We discuss how both types of visual behaviour can add to vocabulary development and story comprehension. (Contains 2 figures and 5 tables.)

Not every child seems equally susceptible to the same parental, educational, or environmental influences even if cognitive level is similar. This study is the first randomized controlled trial to apply the differential susceptibility paradigm to education in relation to children's genotype and early literacy skills. A randomized pretest-posttest control group design was used to examine the effects of the Intelligent Tutoring System "Living Letters." Two intervention groups were created, 1 receiving feedback and 1 completing the program without feedback, and 1 control group. Carriers of the long variant of the dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4 7-repeat) profited most from the computer program with positive feedback, whereas they performed at the lowest level of early literacy skills in the absence of such feedback. Our findings suggest that behind modest overall educational intervention effects a strong effect on a subgroup of susceptible children may be hidden.

Not all young children benefit from book exposure in preschool age. It is claimed that the ability to hold information in mind ("short-term memory"), to ignore distraction ("inhibition"), and to focus attention and stay focused ("sustained attention") may have a moderating effect on children's reactions to the home literacy environment. In a group of 228 junior kindergarten children with a native Dutch background, with a mean age of 54.29 months (SD = 2.12 months), we explored therefore the relationship between book exposure, cognitive control and early literacy skills. Parents filled in a HLE questionnaire (book sharing frequency and an author recognition checklist as indicator of parental leisure reading habits), and children completed several tests in individual sessions with the researcher (a book-cover recognition test, PPVT, letter knowledge test, the subtests categories and patterns of the SON, and cognitive control measures namely digit span of the KABC, a peg tapping task and sustained attention of the ANT). Main findings were: (1) Children's storybook knowledge mediated the relationship between home literacy environment and literacy skills. (2) Both vocabulary and letter knowledge were predicted by book exposure. (3) Short-term memory predicted vocabulary over and above book exposure. (4) None of the cognitive control mechanisms moderated the beneficial effects of book exposure. (Contains 4 tables.)

This research synthesis examines whether the association between print exposure and components of reading grows stronger across development. We meta-analyzed 99 studies (N = 7,669) that focused on leisure time reading of (a) preschoolers and kindergartners, (b) children attending Grades 1-12, and (c) college and university students. For all measures in the outcome domains of reading comprehension and technical reading and spelling, moderate to strong correlations with print exposure were found. The outcomes support an upward spiral of causality: Children who are more proficient in comprehension and technical reading and spelling skills read more; because of more print exposure, their comprehension and technical reading and spelling skills improved more with each year of education. For example, in preschool and kindergarten print exposure explained 12% of the variance in oral language skills, in primary school 13%, in middle school 19%, in high school 30%, and in college and university 34%. Moderate associations of print exposure with academic achievement indicate that frequent readers are more successful students. Interestingly, poor readers also appear to benefit from independent leisure time reading. We conclude that shared book reading to preconventional readers may be part of a continuum of out-of-school reading experiences that facilitate children's language, reading, and spelling achievement throughout their development. (Contains 3 figures and 8 tables.)

The Dutch website Bereslim (http:// www.bereslim.nl) provides digital picture storybooks for three- to seven-year-olds for daily use. The present study investigates whether this new opportunity to enhance linguistic development actively assists preschool children from low- and high-educated families in an equal manner. We looked closely at the characteristics of the 1781 persons who visited the Bereslim website between March and October 2006, when the digital books were available free of charge. To get access, visitors had to complete a brief questionnaire about characteristics of the child (date of birth, gender, school and grade) and parents (educational level, membership library, number of storybooks bought in the last six months, and how they found the website), how the child spent his or her leisure time, whether he or she used (new) media (i.e. amount of time and content of shows/ games/books and favourite websites, programs and books), whether the parents participated in different activities from their children and if their children already are familiar with the five books on the site. We found that the bulk of low-educated families who most need this additional opportunity of literacy enhancement were absent. Attempts to create new chances for at-risk children from low-educated families have often failed, as it did this time in another natural experiment. (Contains 2 tables.)

Children from immigrant, low-income families in the Netherlands start school with a limited vocabulary in the language of instruction; therefore, this places them at risk for developing reading difficulties. Exposure to books is assumed to reduce their 2nd language (L2) vocabulary disadvantage. In this experiment, we examined the effects of video storybooks on the receptive and expressive vocabularies of 5-year-old children. Children (N = 92) were exposed repeatedly to the digital storybook. The story was presented with either static or video images. Children in the control condition played with a nonverbal computer game. Children's receptive and expressive book-based vocabularies were assessed. Results reveal that children learned words receptively and expressively; however, the children seldom learned the same words both ways. Both treatments benefited receptive and expressive vocabularies; however, readings with the addition of video were found to be especially effective for expressive L2 vocabulary acquisition. (Contains 2 tables.)

Does alphabetic-phonetic writing start with the proper name and how does the name affect reading and writing skills? Sixty 4- to 5 1/2-year-old children from middle SES families with Dutch as their first language wrote their proper name and named letters. For each child we created unique sets of words with and without the child's first letter of the name to test spelling skills and phonemic sensitivity. Name writing correlated with children's knowledge of the first letter of the name and phonemic sensitivity for the sound of the first letter of the name. Hierarchical regression analysis makes plausible that both knowledge of the first letter's name and phonemic sensitivity for this letter explain why name writing results in phonetic spelling with the name letter. Practical implications of the findings are discussed.

This meta-analysis examines to what extent interactive storybook reading stimulates two pillars of learning to read: vocabulary and print knowledge. The authors quantitatively reviewed 31 (quasi) experiments (n = 2,049 children) in which educators were trained to encourage children to be actively involved before, during, and after joint book reading. A moderate effect size was found for oral language skills, implying that both quality of book reading in classrooms and frequency are important. Although teaching print-related skills is not part of interactive reading programs, 7% of the variance in kindergarten children's alphabetic knowledge could be attributed to the intervention. The study also shows that findings with experimenters were simply not replicable in a natural classroom setting. Further research is needed to disentangle the processes that explain the effects of interactive reading on children's print knowledge and the strategies that may help transfer intervention effects from researchers to children's own teachers. (Contains 2 notes, 3 tables, and 2 figures.)

Book reading has been demonstrated to promote vocabulary. The current study was conducted to examine the added value of an interactive shared book reading format that emphasizes active as opposed to noninteractive participation by the child. Studies that included a dialogic reading intervention group and a reading-as-usual control group, and that reported vocabulary as an outcome measure were located. After extracting relevant data from 16 eligible studies, a meta-analysis was conducted to attain an overall mean effect size reflecting the success of dialogic reading in increasing children's vocabulary compared to typical shared reading. When focusing on measures of expressive vocabulary in particular (k = 9, n = 322), Cohen's d was 0.59 (SE = 0.08; 95% CI = 0.44, 0.75; p less than 0.001), which is a moderate effect size. However, the effect size reduced substantially when children were older (4 to 5 years old) or when they were at risk for language and literacy impairments. Dialogic reading can change the home literacy activities of families with 2- to 3-year-old children but not those of families with children at greatest risk for school failure. (Contains 3 tables.)

This research focuses on the ability of book-based animated stories, when well designed and produced, to have positive effects on young viewers' narrative comprehension and language skills. Sixty 5-year-olds, learning Dutch as a 2nd language, were randomly assigned to 4 experimental and 2 control conditions. The children profited to some extent from repeated encounters with a storybook with static pictures but more from repeated encounters with the animated form of the story. Both story formats were presented on a computer screen; both included the same oral text spoken in the same voice but the animated story was supplemented with multimedia features (video, sounds, and music) dramatizing the events. Multimedia additions were especially effective for gaining knowledge of implied elements of stories that refer to goals or motives of main characters, and in expanding vocabulary and syntax. The added value of multimedia books was strengthened over sessions. In a group from families with low educational levels who were lagging in language and literacy skills, multimedia storybooks seem to provide a framework for understanding stories and remembering linguistic information.