"Press, swipe and read: Do interactive features facilitate engagement and learning with e-Books?"

​Postdoctoral scholar/alumna Ying Xu (Ph.D. ’20), alumna Joanna C. Yau (Ph.D. ’19), and Professor Stephanie M. Reich published an article in Journal of Computer Assisted Learning analyzing children’s e-book engagement.
 
The title of the article is “Press, swipe and read: Do interactive features facilitate engagement and learning with e-Books?”
 
Xu is a postdoctoral scholar devoted to utilizing interactive technologies to enrich the everyday experiences of children and families. She leverages a child-centered approach and rigorous data analysis to understand how conversational agents like Google Assistant can serve as children’s social partners while also promoting family engagement. She earned her doctorate specialized in Language, Literacy, and Technology. Professor Mark Warschauer served as her advisor.
 
Yau is a postdoctoral scholar research associate at USC’s Department of Psychology. ​Her research interests include media psychology, developmental psychology, educational psychology, and child and adolescent development. For her doctoral work, she specialized in Human Development in Contest (HDiC). Reich served as her advisor.

Ying Xu

​​Reich’s research foci include socio-emotional development, parent-child interactions, peer networks, and social affordances of technology. The bulk of her work explores direct and indirect influences on the child, specifically through the family, online, and school environment. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Society for Community Research and Action. At UCI, Reich is director of the Development in Social Context Lab (DISC) and serves as the associate director of the Ph.D. in Education program. She holds additional appointments in Psychological Science and Informatics.
 
Abstract
 
Young children are introduced to mobile technology at an early age, with many using touchscreens daily. One appeal of touchscreen technology is that it seems to be intuitive for very young children. As a result, many children's e-books are designed for tablets rather than for e-readers or computers. E-books often contain hotspots—interactive areas children can press to receive immediate auditory or visual feedback. This study assessed whether children's (N = 76, aged 3–5 years) interactions with hotspots increased their engagement with reading when using an e-book independently and how such interactions were related to their learning from the story. Our results suggested that interacting with hotspots enhanced children's emotional engagement and sustained visual attention but not verbal engagement. Interacting with hotspots also benefited children's recall of story elements relevant to the hotspot but not their overall comprehension of the story. These findings inform the design and use of touchscreen media in early childhood.