Questions + answers + agency: Interactive touchscreens and Children's learning from a socio-emotional TV story

Using a Brief Multimedia Educational Intervention to Strengthen Young Children's Feelings while Visiting Jailed Parents

The significant number of annual US jail admissions is intricately tied to the increasing population of children with incarcerated parents. Some proportion of these children will visit their parents in jail, and the limited research linking visits to young children's well-being is mixed. Sesame Street developed multimedia educational materials to support young children with incarcerated parents, including specific messages around visiting. The educational materials have been found to positively shape how caregivers talk to children about parental incarceration, though a gap remains regarding young children's self-reported experiences. In a preliminary randomized efficacy trial of these educational materials, the current study examined 67 young children's (aged 3-8) self-reported feelings while at the jail following viewing of the video materials, including their feelings about their caregivers, incarcerated parents, families, and visiting in general. Data were collected when children arrived at the jail (before half were randomized to watch the intervention materials) and then again following the intervention. In the treatment group, the proportion of children reporting positive feelings increased from pre- to post-test, most saliently for feelings about families, while feelings decreased overall for those in the control group. The intervention was associated with positive feelings about family, especially for those children who were told developmentally appropriate information about the parent's incarceration prior to arrival at the jail. The exploratory findings shed light on young children's emotions when visiting parents in jail and the buffering role that intervention materials can have in offering support to help manage feelings during jail visits.

Children simultaneously learn multiple dimensions of information during shared book reading

Picture books inherently contain many parallel dimensions of information and serve as a rich source of input for children. However, studies of children's learning from picture books tend to focus on a single type of information (e.g., novel words). To better understand the learning-related potential of shared book reading, we examined 4.5- to 5.5-year-old children's simultaneous learning of novel words, moral lessons, and story details from a reading interaction with a parent. Results showed that children successfully learned new words, extracted a moral lesson, and recalled story details from the picture book. Contrary to expectations, children's learning was equally strong regardless of whether or not parents were prompted to focus on learning as the key purpose of book reading. This research demonstrates that children learn diverse information presented across different time scales from picture books.

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

Dialogic reading, when children are read a storybook and engaged in relevant conversation, is a powerful strategy for fostering language development. With the development of artificial intelligence, conversational agents can engage children in elements of dialogic reading. This study examined whether a conversational agent can improve children's story comprehension and engagement, as compared to an adult reading partner. Using a 2 (dialogic reading or non‐dialogic reading) × 2 (agent or human) factorial design, a total of 117 three‐ to six‐year‐olds (50% Female, 37% White, 31% Asian, 21% multi‐ethnic) were randomly assigned into one of the four conditions. Results revealed that a conversational agent can replicate the benefits of dialogic reading with a human partner by enhancing children's narrative‐relevant vocalizations, reducing irrelevant vocalizations, and improving story comprehension.

Preschoolers' choices of television characters as sources of information: Effects of character type, format, and topic domain

Educational television (TV) for preschoolers often features unrealistic (anthropomorphic and/or animated) characters, and it is unclear how children perceive such characters as sources of information. In this study, 92 3- to 5-year-olds saw images of characters and chose which would be best for learning about six topics across three domains: animal biology, human biology, and socioemotional. Children were randomized to one of three conditions in which they chose between paired images of (1) live-action humans versus animated humans (i.e., holding character type constant and varying format), (2) animated humans versus animated anthropomorphic animals (i.e., holding format constant and varying character type), or (3) live-action humans versus animated anthropomorphic animals (i.e., most realistic vs. least realistic character choices). Results indicated that children chose animated characters over live-action characters (Conditions 1 and 3). They did not choose humans significantly more often than animals even for human biology and socioemotional lessons (Conditions 2 and 3). However, in Condition 2, they chose animals significantly more often than humans for animal biology lessons. In sum, children showed little sign of prioritizing realism. The study adds children's perspectives to the literature on the effects of reality cues on early learning from educational TV.

You can['t] catch the sun in a net!: Children's misinterpretations of educational science television

Many science television shows feature refutation narratives where characters speculate about the value of scientific misconceptions (e.g., the sun circles the earth) before learning factual information. Previous research suggests that young children misunderstand these stories, and the current study examined whether learning could be improved using interventions previously validated with adults. Children (N = 201) aged 4-7 years viewed a refutation narrative in its original form or in a modified format that lacked misconceptions or that contextualized those misconceptions with additional scaffolds. Although children's comprehension of factual information was high across all conditions, their understanding of misconceptions depended on their prior knowledge. Specifically, children with low prior knowledge mistakenly identified misconceptions as intended factual lessons unless they viewed the story without misconceptions or with two forms of additional scaffolding. Conversely, children with high prior knowledge understood the original story best. These findings suggest that the inclusion of fantasy ideas in children's science programming can disrupt learning for certain children and bolster learning for others.