Live Reading, Video Chat, and Pseudo-Contingent Video Equally Support Story Comprehension in Preschoolers

• In Event: Disrupting the Status Quo in Vocabulary: Radically Rethinking "What," "Who," and "How" for Vocabulary Instruction

Abstract

Despite concerns about children’s media exposure, research suggests video chat may encourage more positive adult-child interactions than other media activities (e.g., Roseberry et al., 2014). One domain where video chat could be useful is in increasing opportunities for shared book reading. Children benefit most from shared book reading when dialogic reading practices, such as asking questions and making connections between the book and children’s lives, are incorporated into reading sessions (e.g., Hargave & Sénéchal, 2000). However, parents who are traveling, relatives who live far away, or parents who live apart from children may not be present for frequent book reading. The current study asks how dialogic reading over video chat compares to more traditional forms of book reading in promoting story comprehension and vocabulary learning.
Four-year-olds (N = 58) were randomly assigned to be read a storybook with ten dialogic reading prompts in one of three experimental conditions (Video chat, Live, and Prerecorded). In the Video chat and Live conditions, the experimenter gave the scripted prompts and interacted naturally and contingently, responding in a timely, relevant manner. In the Prerecorded condition, children viewed a video of an experimenter reading the book in a pseudo-contingent manner; the reader posed questions, paused as if waiting for a response, and provided generic feedback. After reading, children completed measures of receptive, transfer, and expressive vocabulary, as well as a retell task and comprehension questions. We subsequently added a control group (N = 11) who completed measures but were not exposed to the book.
Although children in the experimental conditions outperformed children in the control condition on receptive vocabulary (p = .003), transfer vocabulary (p = .043), retell (p < .001), and comprehension questions (p = .022), there were no differences across the experimental reading conditions for any of the outcomes (ps > .281).
Notably, children in the Video chat (p = .001) and Live conditions (p= 0.038) responded to significantly more of the reader’s questions during book reading than children in the Prerecorded condition, suggesting that children recognized the differences between these conditions.
These results are somewhat surprising, as others (e.g., Roseberry et al., 2014) have found differences in how young children learn from video chat versus pre recorded video. However, by 4-years-old, children may not be as sensitive to book formats. For example, Parish-Morris et al. (2013) found that 3-year-olds, but not 5-year-olds, demonstrated decreased comprehension when distracting features were included in eBooks. Importantly, we were careful to make the Prerecorded condition as similar to the contingent conditions as possible, with pseudo-contingent prompts and minimal distracting features.
Importantly, children’s learning did not differ between the Video chat and Live conditions. This may be due to the prevalence of video chat in children’s lives; children may have been well-accustomed to interacting with digital partners over screens, leading to equal comprehension across the Video chat and Live conditions. Thus, for today’s children, video chatting may create interactions similar to those that occur in person.

Authors

• Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, University of Delaware

• Rebecca Dore, University of Delaware

• Caroline Gaudreau, University of Delaware

• Yemimah King, Purdue University

• Deborah Nichols, Purdue University

• Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Temple University