The effects of CD-ROM storybook reading on children’s emergent literacy as a function of age group and repeated reading

The effects of reading a CD-ROM storybook on children's early literacy
were examined as a function of their age group and the number of times they used the
software. The investigation was carried out on 214 children: 108 pre-kindergarten
children (aged 4:2 to 5:3) and 106 kindergarten children (aged 5:3-6:4). This
population included 107 girls and 107 boys. The children in each group were
randomly assigned to one of three groups. The first intervention group was afforded
three CD-ROM storybook reading sessions. The second group was afforded five
reading sessions and the third group served as a control and was afforded the regular
kindergarten program. Pre- and post-intervention early literacy measures included
vocabulary, word recognition and phonological awareness. No age group differences
were found between the children's early literacy progress after using the software and
no interaction was found between age group and the number of reading sessions.
Children from both age groups exhibited a similar level of story comprehension.
Children who used the software five times exhibited greater progress in word meaning
than those who used it three times and children in both of these groups did better than
the control group. Children who used the software five times exhibited greater
progress in word reading and phonological awareness than children in the control
group. Implications for future research and education are discussed