Educational TV Consumption and Children’s Interest in Leisure Reading and Writing: A Test of the Validated Curriculum Hypothesis

A Review on Antecedents and Consequences of Leisure Reading and Writing in Children

“…For leisure reading, the strongest gender effect amounted to β = .24 in favor of girls compared to boys (El-Khechen et al, 2016). In contrast, for leisure writing, there was no substantial effect of gender, as found by Jensen, Martins et al (2016); this may be due to the to the fact that further variables such as parent reading or watching television were controlled for and the small sample of n = 120 students.…”

“…According to Koolstra et al (1996), television viewing negatively predicted book reading in grades 2 and 3 (effects were up to β = −.16). However, no effects of television viewing on leisure writing were found (Jensen, Martins, et al, 2016). Conversely, children who read a lot tended to show a small decrease in their television consumption 1 year later (up to β = −.09 from grade 1 to grade 2; Koolstra & van der Voort, 1996).…”

“…Moreover, positive effects of a functional home literacy environment could be derived: Jensen, Martins et al (2016) showed that sibling reading explained leisure reading and writing, respectively (β reading/writing = .35/.23). Additionally, Penthin et al (2017) reported positive effects of controllability (β = .16) and subjective norm (β = .07) on leisure reading.…”

Picture This: A Review of Research Relating to Narrative Processing by Moving Image Versus Language

“…As children get older, they get better at narrative processing in both media (Pezdek et al, 1987). But although, as we saw above, both verbal and moving image narrative comprehension require skill and practice, verbal narrative comprehension in particular seems to benefit from increased practice in childhood (Beentjes and van der Voort, 1988; McGeown et al, 2015; Richie et al, 2015; Jensen et al, 2016). Differences between children of the same age in processing narrative relative to medium may reflect different levels of practice as well as differences such as need for cognition or imagery ability.…”

“…Reading, and reading fiction in particular, for enjoyment has been positively correlated with young people’s attainment in a wide range of studies across different countries, many, such as the OECD’s PISA studies, involving large cohorts (Cunningham and Stanovich, 1998; PIRL, 2001, 2006; Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 2002, 2010; Verghese et al, 2003; Mar et al, 2009; Hughes et al, 2010; Sullivan and Brown, 2013; McGeown et al, 2015; Ritchie et al, 2015; Sikora et al, 2019). Moving image narrative is experienced as easier than written narrative both to process and access (Salomon, 1979, 1984; Salomon and Leigh, 1984; Beentjes and van der Voort, 1988, p. 393–4; Ennemoser and Schneider, 2007; Jensen et al, 2016). But there is no evidence that watching fiction films for enjoyment confers comparable benefits in attainment.…”