ICTs and Early Literacy: Spontaneous Insertions of Preschoolers during Reading, E-book versus Traditional Book

Aims: The aim of the present study was to examine the active participation of preschool children during reading comparing their reaction between the traditional book and e-book.

Study Design: Cross-sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: This study took place in Greece, during 2015-2016.

Methodology: The sample consisted of 69 children, aged 3-5 years, who read a traditional book and an e-book. They also participated 5 early childhood educators. At the end of the story the children were asked about their preference in the way of reading the story. Then the interaction of children was analyzed through the approach of “spontaneous insertions” of children based on a system of categories established by previous researches.

Results: It was found that in both reading practices, children made insertions regarding the content of the story, most of which were of low abstraction. In the traditional book reading children made significantly more insertions than in reading an e-book, to low abstraction categories (clarification, questions for clarification, names) and to high abstraction categories (relating to real life, recalling). It is noted that most children stated their preference to the electronic reading.

Conclusion: Based on these findings, it could be claimed that reading an e-book may be accompanied by behaviors that characterize the traditional book reading such as comments on the story and children’s active participation to reading. Since neither of the two types of books does seem to prevail overall, it is deduced that the combined use of e-book with the traditional book, under early childhood education, could contribute both in children's language development and also familiarize them with digital learning environment.