Our case study from Croatia showed the benefits of digital storytelling in a preschool as a basis for the formal ICT education. The statistical analysis revealed significant differences between children aged 6-7 who learned mathematics by traditional storytelling compared to those learning through digital storytelling. The experimental group that used digital storytelling showed significant improvement in their abilities to solve computational and mathematical problems, which suggests that this method was age-appropriate and versatile. Also, the observations of educators from both the experimental and the control group showed that children were more motivated by digital storytelling, succeeding to complete all stories with an incredible amount of engagement and enthusiasm. These findings indicate that interactive multimedia storytelling, compared to the traditional one, can be used as an effective tool for improving child's mathematical and computer literacy skills in the preschool context in which ICT is being introduced for the first time.

Children from immigrant, low-income families in the Netherlands start school with a limited vocabulary in the language of instruction, thus place them at risk for developing reading difficulties. Exposure to books is assumed to reduce their L2 vocabulary disadvantage. In this experiment, we examined the effects of video storybooks on the receptive and expressive language of 5-year-old children. Children (N = 92) were exposed repeatedly to the digital storybook. The story was presented with either static or video images. Children in the control condition played with a nonverbal computer game. Children's receptive and expressive book-based vocabularies were assessed. Results revealed that children learned words receptively and expressively, however, seldom the same words both ways. Both treatments benefited receptive and expressive vocabulary, however, readings with the addition of video were found to be especially effective for expressive L2 vocabulary acquisition. This chapter will be published as: Verhallen, M. J. A. J., & Bus, A. G. (in press). Lowincome immigrant pupils learning vocabulary through digital picture storybooks.

The major purpose of this study was to test how preliterate learners use illustrations in storybooks to understand a story. Subjects were 23 five-year-old low-SES children, learning Dutch as a second language. Each child was exposed four times to a digital picture storybook. Five books were used and counterbalanced over children and repetitions. During book exposure, eye movements were registered using a remote eye-tracking system. To test whether eye fixations matched the text we scored how often and how long children fixated visual elements in the illustrations that the story text highlighted. We also scored how often human and non-human objects were fixated. In line with the hypothesis that eye fixations are time locked to referential expressions in the text, visual elements that the text highlighted were fixated more often and longer than elements in illustrations not highlighted in the story text. We also found evidence that, at times, inspection of illustrations followed an autonomous pattern. We discuss how both types of visual behaviour can add to vocabulary development and story comprehension.

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