Fostering Child Language with Short-Term Digital Storybook Interventions: Dialogic Reading or Screen-Based Story Exposure?

Abstract

Research suggests that storybook reading fosters children's language skills in the early years, with digital formats bearing new potential. This experimental pilot study with stratified randomization evaluates the effects of digital storybook reading in kindergarten on global language, vocabulary, verb learning (irregular past), and narrative skills. We assessed two reading methods: (a) dialogic reading and (b) supervised, independent screen-based story exposure. Twenty-seven children (aged 4-5 years) received a short-term small-group intervention (3 sessions) with a digital storybook on a tablet using one of the two methods with audio narration. Children in the dialogic reading condition made significant gains in receptive vocabulary, expressive target vocabulary, and verb learning. Postcontrasts further revealed a substantial advantage of dialogic reading for children's narrative skills. Age-appropriate digital storybooks designed in line with insights from cognitive and developmental psychology may be used in early education to foster children's language skills, if read dialogically.