This paper reviews the international research evidence on the ways in which information and communication technologies (ICT) are used in both formal and informal pre-school settings. The review addresses the debate over the value and desirability of young children using computers and computational toys; the relationship of these technologies to a media environment which encompasses television, ...

Electronic picture storybooks often include motion pictures, sounds, and background music instead of static pictures, and hotspots that label/define words when clicked on. The current study was designed to examine whether these additional elements aid word learning and story comprehension and whether effects accumulate making the animated e-book that also includes hotspots the most promising de...

The linguistic input a child receives in the first years of life is foundational for cognitive and language development. In a corpus analysis, the vocabulary in picture books was richer and more extensive than that found in child-directed and even adult-directed speech. The grammar and complexity of these communication media, measured by reading grade level, indicated that picture books average...

A commercial medium often assumed to exist solely for a juvenile and "lowbrow" audience, comic books have been largely ignored by academic scholarship. There are some exceptions within the fields of American studies-for instance, the work of Thomas Inge-popular culture studies, where writers gather in a Comic Arts subdivision of the Popular Culture Association, and cultural studies, with work b...