Introduction

We are only at the beginning of a new technological era with far-reaching consequences for children becoming literate. In today’s society, children already are in touch with electronic media. It is thoroughly integrated into the fabric of their lives, with television, movies, videos, music, video games, and computers central to daily activities. Even young children spend on average about two hours a day with electronic entertainment, about as much time as they normally spend playing outside and about three times as much as they spend on average on reading independently or being read to (Rideout, Vandewater, & Wartella, 2003). To an increasing degree, modern media are not just seen as competing with other activities such as reading, but as a stimulus for learning. That is why a growing number of researchers have begun to study how children under 8 years old learn to be literate across a range of printed and electronic media.