This study investigates the role played by parents as mediators of young children's access and engagement with digital technologies. In Belgium, Germany, Latvia and Portugal, qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 families in each country, including one child between 6 and 7 years old. Our findings show that parents of young children mainly play the role of 'gatekeepers' when it comes to facilitating and constraining access to and use of digital technologies. Parents' perceptions of the efficacy of digital technologies as responsible entertainment and as educational tools influence the technologies available at home and

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HighlightsActivation of sign language while bimodal bilinguals heard spoken words.Non-selective cross modality language activation in native and late signers.Parallel activation of the non-dominant language while using the dominant language. AbstractThis study investigates cross-language and cross-modal activation in bimodal bilinguals. Two groups of hearing bimodal bilinguals, natives (Experiment 1) and late learners (Experiment 2), for whom spoken Spanish is their dominant language and Spanish Sign Language (LSE) their non-dominant language, performed a monolingual semantic decision task with word pairs heard in Spanish. Half of the word pairs had phonologically related signed translations in LSE. The results showed that bimodal bilinguals were faster at judging semantically related words when the equivalent signed translations were phonologically related while they were slower judging semantically unrelated word pairs when the LSE translations were phonologically related. In contrast, monolingual controls with no knowledge of LSE did not show any of these effects. The results indicate cross-language and cross-modal activation of the non-dominant language in hearing bimodal bilinguals, irrespective of the age of acquisition of the signed language.

Contemporary homes are filled with digital technologies, and children are exposed to them almost since birth, initiating their first digital experiences at very early ages (Chaudron et al., , Young children (0–8)). This trend is expected to become stronger, as our future has been envisioned around the concept of the IoT (Internet of Things), and the first smart toys are arriving at the homes of digitally savvy families. This study focuses on the digital practices of young children, looking particularly at smart toys, aiming to: a) explore how smart toys are being adopted by families, considering the perceptions of children and parents about drivers and barriers to adoption; and b) understand the domestication of smart toys. Our research is exploratory and builds on the theoretical framework, methodological protocols and ethical guidelines of the international projects “Young Children (0–8) and Digital Technologies” (Chaudron et al., , Chaudron et al., Young children (0–8); Dias and Brito, 2016, 2017, Crianças (0 a 8 anos)) and “Media and Social Discourses around Young Children and IoToys” (Mascheroni & Holloway, 2017). Our methodology is qualitative, based on visits to families including interviews with children and parents and participant observation. We selected a purposive sample of 21 medium‐ or high‐income and digitally savvy families in Portugal. Concerning drivers and barriers for adoption, most children identify several smart toys and express interest in having them. Parents are motivated by the amount of satisfaction that the toy will afford the children and the added‐value in terms of learning or developing skills. However, most parents prefer mechanical toys, sports or outdoors activities and the high price is an obstacle. Concerning domestication, smart toys are still scarce in homes and perceived as novelty, thus being in a very early stage of domestication.

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This paper discusses findings from online surveys completed by parents of 0–3-year-old children in Norway, Portugal and Japan concerning their young children’s use of touchscreen technology. The study investigated parental practices, views and perspectives related to children’s digital practices and explored these in relation to wider cultural discourses around early childhood in the participant countries. The study adopted Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory to inform the questionnaire and interpretative data analysis of how parents’ views and experiences are influenced by a wide range of social, cultural and personal factors. The findings demonstrate some coherence between beliefs among parents regarding very young children’s use of touchscreen technologies and their place in the children’s home lives. Quantitative and qualitative results highlight that the respondents from all countries expressed the need for further guidance regarding technology use, and better communication with early education and care centres. The study findings are discussed in relation to the reported uses of touchscreen technologies in the three different cultural contexts, parents’ views on the benefits and/or disadvantages of children’s touchscreen technology use, and the potential influences of dominant cultural discourses on parents’ perceptions, views and practices.

Reading, even when silent and individual, is a social phenomenon and has often been studied as such. Complementary to this view, research has begun to explore how reading is embodied beyond simply being 'wired' in the brain. This article brings the social and embodied perspectives together in a very literal sense. Reporting a qualitative study of reading practices across student focus groups from six European countries, it identifies an underexplored factor in reading behaviour and experience. This factor is the sheer physical presence, and concurrent activity, of other people in the environment where one engages in individual silent reading. The primary goal of the study was to explore the role and possible associations of a number of variables (text type, purpose, device) in selecting generic (e.g. indoors vs outdoors) as well as specific (e.g. home vs library) reading environments. Across all six samples included in the study, participants spontaneously attested to varied, and partly surprising, forms of sensitivity to company and social space in their daily efforts to align body with mind for reading. The article reports these emergent trends and discusses their potential implications for research and practice.

In the last few years, advertising narratives have become increasingly important. Facing an environment of fierce competition and communication overload, brands needed to reinvent their communication strategies, and stories became protagonists, particularly in the digital environment.This article addresses a new way of applying storytelling in marketing, which is using it to extend products. In our theoretical framework, we review the general importance of storytelling as a communication tool and strategy, departing from the notion of storytelling as the essence of human communication (Fisher, 1987).As empirical work, we present the case study of Josefinas, a Portuguese luxury handmade shoe brand. For each new product, the brand presents a story that not only explains the inspiration for the product, but also communicates values, a lifestyle, emotions, and inspires. We studied a sample of communication pieces and applied a thematic matrix (Kuckartz, 2014), with coding categories inspired by storytelling models and also by brand equity (Aaker, 1991) and product extension (Kotler and Keller, 2012) models.In our findings, we stress the originality of the brand in going beyond advertising in its use of narratives, applying it to add layers of meaning to their products, which are reflected in the brand image, and even in its equity. Thus, we conclude by suggesting the concept of 'product narratives'. Keywords: narrative; product narratives; storytelling; advertising; content marketing; branding Resum. Més enllà de la narrativa publicitària: Josefinas i els seus productes de storytellingEn els últims anys, la narrativa s'ha convertit en un component cada vegada més important de la publicitat. En un ambient de competència feroç i abundància de comunicació, les marques han necessitat reinventar les seves estratègies de comunicació. Les narratives, així, esdevindran protagonistes, sobretot en l'ambient digital.Aquest article aborda una nova forma d'aplicar l'storytelling al màrqueting, que consisteix a aplicar-ho als productes. En el nostre marc teòric, presentem una revisió de la importància de l'storytelling com a estratègia i eina de comunicació, a partir de la noció que la narrativa és l'essència de la comunicació humana (Fisher, 1987).En el nostre treball empíric presentem l'estudi de cas Josefinas, una marca portuguesa de sabates artesanals de luxe. Per a cada nou producte, la marca presenta una història associada que explica la inspiració i comunica valors, un estil de vida i emocions. Estudiem una mostra de les peces de comunicació de la marca aplicant una matriu temàtica (Kuckartz, 2014) amb categories de codificació inspirades en models de storytelling i també en els conceptes de valor de la marca (brand equity) (Aaker, 1991) i d'extensió de producte (Kotler i Keller, 2012).Els nostres resultats destaquen l'originalitat de la marca a portar les seves narratives més enllà de la publicitat, aplicant-les per afegir capes de significat als seus productes, que es reflecteixen en la imatge de la marca i tam...