Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive All Theses and Dissertations 2015-07-01 Does an iPad Change the Experience? A Look at Mother-Child Book Reading Interactions Kathryn L. MacKay Brigham Young University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation MacKay, Kathryn L., "Does an iPad Change the Experience? A Look at Mother-Child Book Reading Interactions" (2015). All Theses and Dissertations. 6000. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/6000 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. i Does an iPad Change the Experience? A Look at Mother-Child Book Reading Interactions Kathryn L. MacKay A dissertation submitted to the faculty of Brigham Young University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy Kendra Hall-Kenyon, Chair Roni Jo Draper Timothy G. Morrison Michael O. Tunnell Jennifer Wimmer Educational Inquiry, Measurement, and Evaluation Brigham Young University July 2015 Copyright © 2015 Kathryn L. MacKay All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT Does an iPad Change the Experience? A Look at Mother-Child Book Reading Interactions Kathryn L. MacKay Education Inquiry, Measurement, and Evaluation, BYU Doctorate of Philosophy Researchers have long argued the importance of shared book reading and its potential impact on future reading growth. With the increasing popularity of e-books and the introduction of interactive iPad books, more and more parents are sharing books with their children in digital format. This may have a direct impact on the nature of the interactions that occur during young children’s early book sharing experiences. This multiple-case study examined the nature of the interactions between six mother-child dyads as they read a story on an iPad compared with the interactions that happened during a traditional book reading. A coding system was developed to categorize behaviors during the reading sessions. The categories included (a) meaning talk, (b) text and print talk, (c) technology talk, and (d) the nature of the affective climate. The results of this study indicate that mother-child traditional read-alouds and digital iPad read-alouds are different experiences. During digital readings there was an increase in the number of vocabulary-related (a subcategory of meaning) interactions but a decrease in the number of interactions related to text and print. The results also showed that as the dyad shared a digital storybook, they engaged in many interactions about the technological elements of the iPad texts, which may be important to the development of digital literacies in young children. The findings also indicate that a child is more engaged with digital texts than with traditional texts, which is important because engagement is an essential component in literacy development. However, sometimes the child’s increased engagement with the digital texts resulted in both members of the dyad being less sensitive to the other. Digital storybook reading is a relatively new experience for many parents and thus, they may not know how to interact with their children in ways that promote the development of traditional and digital literacies. Keywords: electronic books, family literacy, shared storybook reading, mother-child interactions, digital literacies, emergent literacy ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to my committee members, friends, and family who aided and supported me throughout the dissertation process. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Kendra Hall-Kenyon for her unending guidance, care, and patience as she chaired my dissertation committee. I also express gratitude for my committee members: Dr. Michael Tunnell for his unwavering encouragement as well as his deep knowledge and love of children’s literature; Dr. Roni Jo Draper for encouraging me to think deeply about case-study; Dr. Timothy Morrison for sharing his expertise on literacy development; and Dr. Jennifer Wimmer for opening my eyes to the broad field of digital literacies. I am also thankful for Dr. Richard Sudweeks for his guidance during my doctoral program. He is a great mentor, teacher, leader, and human being. I would also like to thank the friends who supported me during my doctoral program; fellow students, close friends, and colleagues. I leaned on their expertise, knowledge, friendship, and shoulders on many occasions. I am blessed to be associated with such fine individuals. Finally, I would like to thank my family for understanding why I needed to spend so many hours focusing on my dissertation. My husband, Paul, has been my greatest support as he acted as a sounding board, critic, friend, and comforter. Thank you for your faith in me. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................... iii LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................................................... x LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... xvi Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 Purpose of the Study ................................................................................................................... 5 Research Questions ..................................................................................................................... 5 Definition of Terms ..................................................................................................................... 5 Chapter 2: A Review of the Literature .......................................................................................... 10 Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................................. 10 Social Constructionist Development Theory ............................................................................ 11 Zone of proximal development. ............................................................................................. 11 Interrelational zone. ............................................................................................................... 12 Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) ........................................................................... 13 Mother-Child Book Readings ................................................................................................... 15 Literature Search Process and Criteria ...................................................................................... 16 Traditional Books ...................................................................................................................... 17 Interpsychological domain. ................................................................................................... 18 Interrelational domain. ........................................................................................................... 25 Digital Books............................................................................................................................. 28 Interpsychological domain .................................................................................................... 34 v Interrelational domain. ........................................................................................................... 36 Computer tablets. ................................................................................................................... 37 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 40 Chapter 3: Method ........................................................................................................................ 42 Material Selection ..................................................................................................................... 42 Quality and likeability. .......................................................................................................... 42 Availability. ........................................................................................................................... 44 Video and audio elements...................................................................................................... 44 Book emphasis ....................................................................................................................... 45 Case Selections .......................................................................................................................... 46 Participants ................................................................................................................................ 47 Chantel and her mother. ......................................................................................................... 49 Alia and her mother. .............................................................................................................