Interactive Storybook Software: Effects on Verbal Development in Kindergarten Children

Abstract

This study addressed whether children from lower income homes can benefit in their verbal skills through interaction with computer software that reads to them. Sixty subjects from lower income homes were randomly selected and assigned to treatment and control groups, with thirty in each group. The design was a pretest‐posttest control group design, and data was analyzed using analysis of covariance. The study took place in ten public school kindergarten classrooms located in a district in northern Florida, each equipped with computers. Discis Knowledge Research, Inc., provided the storybook software. The results of the study determined that for 25 children who interacted with the software for a minimum of 300 minutes over the seven‐week intervention, there was a significant increase in their verbal abilities.