Attention to text in video predicts young children's orthographic knowledge

This study examined preschool-aged children's attention to text in video, and whether it may be related to their developing orthographic knowledge. SAMPLE 1: Study 1 showed 66 children videos that included text. Method Children's attention to the video was measured using eye-tracking, and their recognition of orthographic patterns within the video was tested after viewing. Results During viewing, children attended to the text 6% of the time it was available. However, children who both had pre-existing letter knowledge and attended to the text in the video were able to identify the written words. SAMPLE 2: A second study extended these findings to a younger age group (n = 59).

In Study 2, we also showed children an unrelated storybook that incorporated the target words from the videos and measured attention to that storybook.

Results again showed little attention to text, but some recognition of written words for those who did attend. Study 2 also showed that children who recognized the written words from the video attended more to those words in a different context.

Overall results suggest a relationship between letter knowledge, attention and developing orthographic knowledge.