Electronic books Boon or bust for interactive reading Molly

							                                   Electronic books: Boon or bust for interactive reading?

                                              Molly F. Collins, Erikson Institute
                                              Julia Parish, Temple University

Do parents and children interact differently when reading electronic books (e-books) versus traditional books (t-books)?
23 children were recruited from two children’s museums to find out. Invited into a quiet room, parents and children sat in
front of a table displaying ten books (five e- and five t-books) matched on length and similarity of characters/plot structure.
They were instructed to “Do whatever you normally do with books.” Parent questionnaires probed for home reading
practices as children chose a book to read. Parent-child interactions were videotaped and parental utterances were coded
as either behavioral/directive or story-related. Results indicated that children selected t-books (64%) over e-books (36%).
Further, parents reading e-books made behavioral/directive verbalizations significantly more often than parents reading t-
books. Parents reading t-books made significantly more story-related than behavioral/directive verbalizations and more
story-related verbalizations than parents reading e-books. T-books rather than e-books seem to foster behaviors
associated with emergent literacy.