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…

Explores specific characteristics of insecure-avoidant, secure, and insecure-ambivalent mother-infant dyads (N=82) in the context of sharing a picturebook. Results support the view that early literacy skills are connected to a fundamentally social process. The learning/instruction process depends on the affective dimension of the infant-mother…

Studied interactions which are related to written language, attachment security, and emergent literacy between 45 mothers and their children, aged one-and-a-half to five-and-a-half years. Results suggest that mothers give reading instruction to small children by naming letters and well-known words which contain those letters. Mother-child…

Explores the usefulness of the attachment relationship between children and parents for explaining differences in parent-preschooler reading in high- and low-socioeconomic-status families. Finds that less secure dyads read less frequently. Proposes a developmental model of interactive reading. Concludes that programs must create a safe base from…

Evaluates the hypothesis that dyslexic children have a specific deficit in phonological reading processes. Describes a quantitative meta-analysis with the same hypothesis that provides evidence for differences between dyslexics and normal readers on nonword reading tasks. Considers the weaknesses of studies finding no deficits. (HB)

An adult read to 12 children from a regular paper book. Twenty-four children explored a similar electronic book. For half of this group, the electronic book was with and for half without restrictions on games. Regular book format was more supportive of learning story content and phrasing; both formats supported internalization of features of…

A counterbalanced, within-subjects design was carried out to study the efficacy of electronic books in fostering kindergarten children's emergent story understanding. The study compared effects of children's independent reading of stories electronically with effects of printed books read aloud by adults. Participants were 18 four- to five-year-old…

Examines how parents from different cultural groups mediated a simple narrative text to their 4-year-old children. Suggests when reading is less important for the parents personally, they are less inclined to deviate from the text to negotiate meaning. Notes the ethnic groups differed in how the parents interacted with their children, but these…

A study was done extending work on children's literacy by relating quality of parent-child interactive exchange during book reading to assessments of infant-parent attachment security. Compared to secure mother-child pairs, insecure-avoidant pairs and insecure-resistant pairs were more inclined to encounter distraction and ambivalence on the part…

Two series of case studies were carried out following a multiple baseline design across individuals. The first series of eight studies included 4- to 5-year-old Dutch kindergarten children, and the second series examined 5- to 6-year-old kindergarten children. Each child wrote approximately 16 stories in the natural classroom environment over a…