Scaffolding attention and partial word learning through interactive coviewing of educational media: An eye-tracking study with low-income preschoolers.

Abstract

This study was designed to examine the effects of coviewing on low-income children's attention to and understanding of novel words in educational media. In addition, we sought to understand coviewing's contribution to children's receptive and expressive word learning when some target words were repeated more or less frequently. Using a within-subjects design, 83 preschoolers viewed 2 educational media stories, 1 with an adult coviewer, and the other without, in a counterbalanced approach. Eye-tracking technology recorded children's attention throughout viewing; pre-and posttests examined children's gains in receptive and expressive word identification. Results indicated that children's attention to target words was greater in the coviewing condition but appeared to contribute to expressive word learning only of lower repetition words. Attention mediated the relationship between coviewing and low-repetition word learning for expressive, but not receptive, vocabulary. Regardless of condition, children learned more words when they were repeated more frequently. This study provides further evidence that low-income children can pick up at least partial word knowledge on their own, particularly when words are repeated frequently. Educational Impact and Implications StatementNumerous policymakers have recommended adult coviewing of educational media to enhance young children's learning. This study focuses on its potential to enhance low-income preschoolers' word learning in programs, some of which were repeated more frequently than others. Results of our study suggests that coviewing's contribution was limited to situations when the word repetition was low; when words were repeated frequently, children seemed to pick up partial word knowledge on their own. Taken together, this research highlights both the features of educational media and the social supports that might contribute to low-income children's language learning.

Dialogue with a conversational agent promotes children’s story comprehension via enhancing engagement

“…This direct approach may not be typical of how adults interact with children and could have limited the agent's ability to elicit positive emotional responses. Our analysis also suggested that dialogue did not lead to a significantly higher level of visual attention during reading, while other studies suggested that children more frequently fixated on the educational content displayed on the screen when an adult co‐viewer commented on the content (Neuman et al, 2019 ). However, in Neuman et al, the comments were not designed to elicit children's verbal responses, but rather to label and explain the vocabulary.…”

“…A number of studies have suggested that increased reading engagement resulting from dialogic interaction is associated with enhanced outcomes. For example, Neuman et al (2019) used eye-tracking to show that dialogic coviewing, where an adult prompted children's attention using techniques such as repeating words, pointing to objects, or providing brief recaps of certain plot points, enhanced children's visual attention to narrative content and resulted in enhanced word learning. Troseth et al (2020) found that, when parents were prompted to utilize dialogic questioning strategies, children were more cognitively engaged as they talked more and used more diverse vocabulary.…”

“…According to Guthrie and Klauda’s ( 2014 ) well‐cited framework, reading engagement consists of behavioral, emotional, and cognitive dimensions. Behavioral engagement refers to how attentive students are during the reading session and is usually measured by how much children visually attend to the reading materials; emotional engagement refers to students’ enthusiasm and feelings about what they are reading, and is usually measure by their emotional expressions; and cognitive engagement refers to a child actively thinking in order to comprehend the story and participate in discussion, and is often measured using vocalization as a proxy for cognitive engagement (Neuman et al, 2019 ; Troseth et al, 2020 ; Xu et al, 2020 ; Zhou & Yadav, 2017 ). A number of studies have suggested that increased reading engagement resulting from dialogic interaction is associated with enhanced outcomes.…”

Media regulation strategies in parents of 4- to 16-year-old children and adolescents: a cross-sectional study

“…The correlation analyses revealed that the restrictive media regulation strategies (restrictive mediation and monitoring) are often applied in parallel. Similarly, the active regulation strategies (active mediation and co-use) were highly correlated, indicating that they are also often applied in parallel or even simultaneously, e.g., when parents use the shared media time to provide their children with media-relevant information (interactive coviewing [ 25 ]). Technical mediation, in contrast, is applied independently of other regulation strategies.…”

Does a Sense of Social Presence During Conversation Affect Student's Shared Memory? Evidence From SS-RIF Paradigm

“…A study comparing preschoolers' learning of receptive and expressive words with and without adults found support for this view. Even when there was no eye contact or verbal communication between the adults and children, the presence of others enabled the preschoolers accompanied by adults to learn more expressive words than did those who were unaccompanied (10). Therefore, social presence brought about by the presence of others does affect the extent to which individuals carry out common retrieval.…”