The increasing range and number of electronic books (e-books) available in the children's book market has motivated educators and researchers to investigate how well these platforms can contribute to advancing emergent literacy. Such research has nonetheless been conducted on a much smaller scale in the area of self-regulated learning (SRL) with e-books targeted at young children at risk for learning disabilities. The article discusses recent research conducted with kindergartners 4.5 to 7.0 years old. In the research reported, the 78 participants were randomly divided into three groups of equal size: experimental (educational e-book with meta-cognitive guidance), experimental (educational e-book without metacognitive guidance), and control (the regular kindergarten program). The findings indicated that the metacognitive guidance embedded in the educational e-book supported phonological awareness (rhyming) but not vocabulary acquisition.
Reading Rocks Junior: An Exploratory Study of an Emergent Literacy Program for Children at-Risk for Learning Disabilities