Factors that affect emergent literacy development when engaging with electronic books

Salmon, L. G. (2014). Factors that Affect Emergent Literacy Development When Engaging with Electronic Books. Early Childhood Education Journal, 42(2), 85-92. doi: 10.1007/s10643-013-0589-2

Background

Traditionally, the practice of shared book reading between parent and child during early childhood is considered to be important for laying the foundation of literacy skills acquisition. These young children are also gaining access to electronic storybooks (e-books) that aim to both entertain and educate. The multimedia features of these e-books can transform the reading experience of these children whether they read alone, or with their parents.

Aims

The author investigated the factors in the use of electronic books that influenced the emergent literacy development of children aged three to seven from existing studies. The literature review was aimed at answering the research question:

What are the factors that affect literacy development when using electronic books with prekindergarten through first-grade students?

Sample

The literature was from peer-reviewed journals from 2000 to 2013.

Method

The initial search from five databases yielded 143 results. With a total of 41 articles that met the criteria of the investigation, four themes could be identified: interactive features, quality of electronic books, repetitive exposures, and adult support and interactions.

Findings

The results concluded that the above four themes were factors in potential literacy outcomes. The first factor was the interactive features in e-books which scaffolded literacy development in the absence of adult support. Interactive features like speech feedback, highlighting and the multi-media format benefited the children’s phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge, and vocabulary. Low ability learners benefited the most from in-text vocabulary exposure. The interactive dictionary feature strengthened word meaning and word reading for these children. The second factor pertained to the quality of e-books. Commercially-produced e-books were generally found to be inferior and did not support literacy development.

The third factor was repetitive exposures to the story. Repeated readings of e-books improved many literacy skills although researchers did not discount the effect of the multimedia features in the repetitions.

The fourth factor, adult support and interactions, showed that the interaction between adult and child reading an e-book was different from reading print text suggesting that the adult-supported reading of both formats should be exploited more.

Implications

The findings suggest that e-books can support the literacy development of young children although specific factors can bring about positive or negative outcomes. With the increasing use of e-books and digital readers, stakeholders such as parents, teachers, administrators and software developers should ensure young children, especially those from low SES, benefit from quality e-books and reading experiences.

Original article retrieved from EBSCOHost.