Dissertation

Effects of Children’s Book Format on Parent-Child Interaction and Physiological Response

Overview. While there have been many studies on how parents engage with their children while using traditional print books, there are few studies on parent-child reading behaviors while using eBooks with interactive features. Previous research has found parents’ scaffolding behaviors and children’s story comprehension do not vary between print and eBooks (Lauricella et al., 2014). Other studies have found that print books elicit richer language than eBooks (Korat & Or, 2010) which leads to better story comprehension scores (Krcmar & Cingel, 2013). In a standout study comparing a traditional print book, a noninteractive eBook, and an interactive eBook, researchers found that parent-child interactions were high in all book conditions (Chiong et al., 2012). The print and eBooks prompted equal amounts of content related behaviors (e.g., pointing, labeling, elaborating), while interactive eBooks elicited more non-content related behaviors (e.g., talking about the device). Although parent-child interaction levels were high in all conditions, subsequent story comprehension scores showed that children who used interactive eBooks recalled less of the narrative than those who read the noninteractive eBook or the print book. Taken together, these findings on parent language during eBook reading demonstrate that story-related language benefits children’s understanding of the narrative and interactivity may have an impact on preschoolers’ learning, depending on how its designed and how its navigated by parents. The previous mixed research precludes an investigation on how children learn from various book formats in a naturalistic setting, examining potential mechanisms that drive different outcomes.

Methods Participants and design. In total, 88 preschool-aged children (3-5 years) and their parents will participate in the study. This study has a fully crossed 2 (book type: print, electronic) x 2 (interactivity: interactive, noninteractive) between-subjects design.

Apparatus and materials. The experimenter has written and illustrated a novel story containing novel characters. All books (print-noninteractive, print-interactive, electronic-noninteractive, electronic- interactive) will be identical in content.

Procedure and measures. Children and their parents will be observed reading one of the four book formats. First, parents will be prompted to read aloud to their child as they normally would at home while the child wears an E4 Empatica wristband to measure physiological response (e.g., engagement, movement). Children will then complete word learning, story comprehension, and vocabulary (PPVT-IV) assessment.

Results and Conclusions This study is in its beginning stages, but it aims to provide principled knowledge to parents on potential mechanisms that elicit different learning outcomes from books, such as platform, interactivity, parent-child interaction, or physiological response. eBooks have the possibility of reaching out to a vast audience of children for minimal cost. If parents are aware of the mechanisms that drive differences in learning outcomes, they can tailor their child’s learning experiences with eBooks accordingly for maximum educational gain.