An empirical investigation of parent-child shared reading of digital personalized books

Abstract

Numerous studies have documented the benefits of parent-child shared reading of print books, but few studies have examined parent-child reading behaviours with digital personalized books. This lab-based study examined the child language outcomes following shared reading of a personalized digital book by twenty-six British mothers and their 3- to 4-year-old children. The digital book included pages that were individualized to each participating child, with each child’s name, photograph, favourite toy and food, as well as generic pages with no personalized content. The findings indicate the significance of personalization features in parent-child shared reading on screen and indicate the importance of parents’ role in expanding beyond children’s focus on self during shared reading.