A Digital Training Program Fostering Media Sign Literacy in Preschool Children. An Evaluation Study

Despite the increasing importance of media literacy for preschool children, no scientifically proven measure exists for the training of this skill. We therefore designed a digital training program for 4- to 5-year-old children to promote the development of media sign literacy (MSL), namely, the ability to understand the symbol systems used to organize media. The program consisted of 10 sessions on a tablet, which focused on different parts of basic media knowledge. The program took about four weeks to complete, with each session lasting approximately 25 minutes. We evaluated the effectiveness of the training program not only in terms of fostering MSL but also its potential to support linguistic and mathematical competencies. The study took place in the children’s preschools and was rescheduled online during the COVID-19 lockdowns. To evaluate the effectiveness of the program, we compared the training group to a control group, which received no training. The children’s verbal and nonverbal intelligence were also assessed. The results showed that the children in the training group had a significantly higher level of MSL and higher letter knowledge after the training than those in the control group. The training had no effect on mathematical competencies.