Learning about Literacy through Multimedia

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Summary: Literacy development often starts in young children’s early symbol-using activity, in their talk, play, and reading and writing (Neuman & Dickinson, 2006). Studies suggest that there are many ways that children make these connections with writing and reading early in life, and many pathways into literacy (Cunningham, 2012). One pathway, however, that has increasingly captured the public’s attention (and concern) is the potential of digital media in these early years. Today children are likely to be introduced to picture books through multimedia stories, streamed on various media platforms, or through ebooks as well as traditional print (Rideout, 2017). Yet, how this changing literacy environment may affect the ways children respond and relate to stories, and to engage them in constructing and communicating meaning through talk and play is still not well understood.

Building on Mayer’s classic work in multimedia learning (2001), this presentation investigates the nature of digital and print stories for young children. Multimedia learning, from our perspective, occurs when a young learner builds a mental representation from words, pictures, and actions that are presented. In its broadest sense, it can include book-based environments consisting of text and illustrations, digital environments that engage children in talk and animated features, to socio-dramatic play, involving children in using language to represent one object for another. Including four papers that examine how young children engage in this digital environment, this symposium addresses multimedia’s potential to support young children’s early symbol-using activities in oral language, play and meaning-making.

Sub Unit

• Technology, Media & Child Development

Chair

• Susan B. Neuman, New York University

Individual Presentations

• The Digital Book-Play Paradigm in Early Literacy Teaching: A Research Review - Presenting Author: Kathy Roskos, John Carroll University

• Reinventing the picture storybook for a new generation of readers: Results of Individual Participant Data (IPD) meta-analysis - Presenting Author: Adriana Bus, University of Stavanger

• The effect of multimedia on low-income children’s word learning: A theory of synergy - Presenting Author: Preeti Samudra, SUNY Plattsburgh

• Preschoolers do not share their parents’ beliefs about print and digital media - Presenting Author: Gabrielle A. Strouse, University of South Dakota; Non-Presenting Author: Lisa A. Newland, University of South Dakota; Non-Presenting Author: Daniel J. Mourlam, University of South Dakota; Non-Presenting Author: Steven R. Chesnut, University of South Dakota