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We compared the effects of children's reading of an educational electronic storybook on their emergent literacy with those of being read the same story in its printed version by an adult. We investigated 128 5-to 6-year-old kindergarteners; 64 children from each of two socio-economic status (SES) groups: low (LSES) and middle (MSES). In each group, children were randomly assigned to one of three subgroups. The two intervention groups included three book reading sessions each; children in one group individually read the electronic book; in the second group, the children were read the same printed book by an adult; children in the third group, which served as a control, received the regular kindergarten programme. Pre-and post-intervention emergent literacy measures included vocabulary, word recognition and phonological awareness. Compared with the control group, the children's vocabulary scores in both intervention groups improved following reading activity. Children from both interventions groups and both SES groups showed a similarly good level of story comprehension. In both SES groups, compared with the control group, children's phonological awareness and word recognition did not improve following both reading interventions. Implications for future research and for education are discussed. Keywordselectronic storybook, emergent literacy, kindergarteners, SES.The large availability of electronic books (e-books) in the market today poses a novel situation in which kindergarteners can 'read' or listen to storybooks independently. This development holds great promise and makes it imperative to determine how much the use of this new type of software affects young children's language (e.g. vocabulary and story comprehension) and emergent literacy levels (e.g. word recognition and phonological awareness). This comparison is interesting, especially regarding their emergent literacy development, because of the unique features that the storybook software offers which are not available in the printed version.Many e-books include different multimedia effects, such as written text, oral reading, oral discourse, animations, music and sound effects. The oral reading of the text by the narrator, accompanied by the highlighted text, can provide users with insights into the nature of the written text by allowing the children to carefully follow the written words, phrases or passages which are being read out to them. Sometimes e-books include optional hidden hot spots which can be activated by the user and which elaborate on the illustrations or the text. Such activity has the potential to expand the children's knowledge of the story events by adding information that does not appear in the original story text. Sometimes clicking on a glowing word of the text might provide the children an explanation of a word, the meaning of which is not yet known to the young child.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of activity with an educational electronic book (e-book), as compared with adult reading of the printed version of the same book, on the vocabulary, phonological awareness as well as concept about print of preschool children at risk for learning disabilities. The study involved the participation of 110 children aged 5-7. All participants were identified as having developmental delays placing them at risk for learning disabilities. The sample was randomly assigned to three groups: activity with the e-book, listening to the book's printed version read by an adult (reading-as-usual) and a control group. The findings indicated that the children exposed to the e-book displayed significantly higher emergent literacy improvement (vocabulary and phonological awareness) when compared with the children who participated in the other two groups. These findings and their implications are discussed.

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The researchers addressed two questions: (1) Does maternal reading mediation and family home literacy environment (HLE) relate to childrenÕs emergent literacy (EL) level? and (2) Do the relationships among these variables differ as a function of socioeconomic strata (SES) level. A total of 94 5-6-year-old children, 47 from low SES (LSES) and 47 from high (HSES) families, and their mothers participated. Mother-child interactions while reading an unfamiliar book were videotaped and their verbal expressions were coded for extracting maternal mediation level. ChildrenÕs independent EL level was assessed prior to the interaction. Compared with the LSES group, HSES children showed higher EL levels and their homes had a richer literacy environment. Maternal mediation level differed by SES: LSES mothers paraphrased text more often; HSES mothersÕ higher mediation level included a discussion of the written system and making connections beyond the text. In the HSES group, maternal mediation level and HLE related to childrenÕs EL; no such relationships appeared in the LSES group. Results are discussed in terms of childrenÕs socio-economic background and their reading experiences. Implications for researchers and educational practices about the relationships between childrenÕs literacy development, SES, HLE, and parental mediation are discussed.