Being read aloud is an important stimulus for the development of emergent literacy. During reading it is important that a child not only listens, but also actively focuses their attention to the...Show moreBeing read aloud is an important stimulus for the development of emergent literacy. During reading it is important that a child not only listens, but also actively focuses their attention to the tekst in the picture book. Various studies have shown that children who are being read to do not pay much attention to the written text in picture books. The aim of the current study was to investigate the effect of repeated reading, using highlighted text and using print-salient text to examine the attention on written text in picture books, by following the eye movements of 126 children in kindergarten using a Eye Tracker. The study is an experimental study with pre- and post-measurements and random assignment of the children to one of the six conditions. For all children, repeated reading and highlighting the text was observed to increase the amount of time the children looked at the written text in a picture book, than when there was no intervention. For adjusting the characteristics of the written text no positive effect was found. Future researcher is required to examine the effects of attentionorienting strategies on reading related outcomes. What also remains unclear is the specific outcome of this additional attention to the written text in picture books. It is unknown if these strategies lead to benefits or detrimental effects on other reading related components.Show less
