ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the potential of picture book apps and app-based reading situations for children’s literacy skills. It addresses the impact of different types of media on shared reading interactions. The results are portrayed with respect to joint engagement under the conditions of analogue (conventional picture book) and digital (picture book app) reading. With respect to joint engagement as a basic condition for language and literacy learning and teaching, the empirical study particularly focuses on cognitively activating and emotionally attuning interactions within the reading process. This study compares the impact of using digital media in shared reading and storytelling interaction for 2- to 3-year-old children’s story comprehension. The results reveal crucial differences in digital versus analogue adult-child reading situations. In the digital situation, adult readers use more media-related and less content-related utterances and are less likely to be emotionally attuned and cognitively activating dialogue partners. Children participate less in the reading process and show reduced story comprehension. The results from a second study show that professional training supports educators to cope with the specific interactive conditions within digital reading processes. The findings advise educators on how to build on and expand professional responsiveness using video-based multimodal interaction analysis.
