indicating that if a digital shared reading programme was offered in the future, they felt other parents would like to be involved. The parents were supportive of a similar digital shared reading intervention being offered at their school or to their local early learning centre in the future. Two parents were concerned that the iPads would not be returned to the school and two parents thought that time could be a barrier to busy families being involved with reading with their child.
With regards to the two-way knowledge exchange sessions, the majority of parents felt that they were more aware of dialogic reading behaviours and were consciously beginning to implement these strategies into their shared reading episodes with their children. Whereas some parents really appreciated the information about dialogic reading, others indicated they were already using dialogic reading strategies with their children. Whilst all families received written, verbal and visual information about dialogic reading and developing early literacy skills with digital books, not all families increased their dialogic reading behaviours during the intervention. Despite this, the overall trajectory across the five test occasions for expressive and receptive vocabulary was positive. Mol et al. (2008) conducted a meta- analysis of dialogic parent-child book reading and reported that dialogic reading did not always form a scaffolding of parent–child opportunities for early literacy development for all parents, and this was certainly the case for the present study. Whilst significant improvements in language development can be attributed to the parent-child dialogic reading behaviours, it is possible that they may also be attributed to children’s repeated exposure to the vocabulary in the digital texts (Marsh & Singleton, 2009; Mol et al., 2008; Robbins & Ehri, 1994; Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2002), or the scaffolding features in the digital books (Smeets & Bus, 2015). For parents with no or limited prior experience with an iPad, the information regarding the mechanics of using an iPad was particularly beneficial. Parents appreciated the
opportunity to share with and learn from other parents, and sound out ideas. Together they solved problems: about how to turn off the audio features they found frustrating; overcoming
issues with children being distracted by the interactive features and not concentrating on the story; and where to find particular books on the iPad, as some had difficulty finding the two iBook titles as they had to be accessed in the iBooks app, rather than from a particular e-book app on the home screen.
Seven of the eight parents reported that having access to the iPads and digital books was having a positive effect on their child’s learning. One parent commented that her child was more engaged with the digital books than he had been with print books and asked if the school home readers (levelled reading texts) could be loaded onto the iPads in the future. Several parents requested a greater number of books be loaded onto the iPads to provide a larger selection from which to choose, in terms of reading difficulty and range of fiction and non-fiction titles to maximise the learning. Parents stated that the programme had a positive effect on their own learning with one parent acknowledging that the two-way knowledge exchange sessions had helped her learn to use an iPad and stay one step ahead of her child. Another parent explained that she had enjoyed her son teaching her how to use the iPad and digital books.
An unintended benefit of the digital shared reading intervention was access to the iPad and digital books for siblings of the child participants. Of the seven participants with other children in the home, six believed that having the digital books on the iPad was helping their other children learn at home. The seventh parent acknowledged that her younger daughter had used the iPad; however, she was unsure if her daughter’s engagement with the digital books was helping her learn. She spoke about her mixed feelings regarding technology use for children and her desire to control and limit her children’s use of technology.
Three parents believed that the digital texts had acted as a stimulus for fathers to be involved with their children’s learning. Whilst mothers took primary responsibility for participation in the intervention, two participants believed that their husbands read more frequently with the digital books than they typically had with printed texts. One participant indicated that as she preferred to read print texts with her son, she had encouraged her husband to read the digital texts with him. This had resulted in the child’s father assuming responsibility for the shared reading and thus reading to his son more often. A second parent believed the technology was the motivation for her husband to read with their child. A third parent did not comment on the frequency of her child’s father reading with her child; however, it is important to note that the
father attended the initial information session and one of the two-way knowledge exchange sessions at the Child and Family Centre and was actively involved in supporting his son’s engagement with the digital texts on the iPad. Given the research suggesting fathers’ verbal exchanges with their children are directlyrelated to children’s language skills (Malin et al., 2012) and verbal exchanges are integral to successful shared reading experiences (Arnold et al., 1994), encouraging fathers to participate in digital shared reading with their children is of importance. Whilst involving fathers in children’s literacy development is important for all children, it is particularly important for children living in low-income families. Children from low-income families are more likely to have slower vocabulary development than their middle- and high-income counterparts (Malin et al., 2012). Furthermore, since vocabulary development is a predictor of later school outcomes (Sénéchal & LeFevre, 2002) the benefits of involving fathers in digital shared reading cannot be ignored.
This has implications for further research as less is currently known about fathers’ involvement in young children’s literacy development (Clark, 2009; Morgan et al., 2009; Saracho, 2007a). Research that is currently available demonstrates that fathers can contribute to their children’s literacy development and academic success by engaging in literacy practices that influence literacy learning (Saracho, 2007a). Further research is required into the benefits of fathers assisting their children’s literacy development through digital shared reading. This also has implications for schools implementing digital shared reading
initiatives. It is important for schools and children’s centres to acknowledge the important contributions fathers make to their children’s learning and consider the barriers to fathers engaging in home-school literacy initiatives. A first step would be to schedule sessions when it is convenient for fathers to attend (Saracho, 2007a). Education providers must ensure that fathers, as well as mothers, are supported to help their children develop early literacy skills and learn to read.
Question 5: How can the benefits of the digital shared reading intervention be