Screen Tablets and Language Stimulation in Kindergartens: Developing Tools to Assess the Effect of Tablet Screens on Linguistic Development, 2015

Kindergartens experience increasing expectations to introduce digital technology, and are increasingly making use of digital technologies in different activities. The kindergartens are crucial arenas for children's language development. Children learn languages first and foremost by using language in social situations, and through direct engagement in different language activities. Especially important are the ways that adults encourage children to take part in linguistic activities through structural methods like dialogic reading. With screen tablets (iPad) we have got a number of picture book apps and especially adapted digital stories. However, there is not much research on whether qualities of digital technologies take care of or undermine the language stimulating effect of reading activities. Digital technologies have other material and technical characteristics than the book; the iPad screen radiates light and we handle tablets and books differently when we turn pages and point. Therefore a very interesting question is how different technology affordances affect linguistic interaction under dialogical reading.