SBIR Phase I: Testing and Optimizing Digital Tools Aimed at Promoting Parent/Caregiver-Mediated Dialogic Reading from Infancy to Kindergarten Entry

SBIR 第一阶段：测试和优化数字工具，旨在促进从婴儿期到幼儿园入学的家长/看护者介导的对话阅读

• 批准号: 1646962
• 负责人: Alice Letvin
• 金额: $ 22.5万
• 依托单位: Read, Ask, Chat, Ltd.
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-12-01 至 2017-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1646962&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Testing; Optimizing; Digital

This Phase I project will test and optimize a software system and digital tools designed to promote parent/caregiver-mediated dialogic reading routines in children ages 6 months to 5 years. Early exposure to dialogic reading has been shown to foster virtually all school-readiness indicators from cognitive and social-emotional development to vocabulary attainment and concepts about print. Research demonstrates that science learning should also be cultivated before kindergarten entry, so children begin formal schooling with age-appropriate content and conceptual knowledge and the capacity to observe, experiment, and problem solve. The increase of income inequality in the US underscores the urgency of closing ever-widening achievement gaps between children living in poverty and more affluent peers. Investments in early childhood have been shown to remediate educational deficits, so a cost-effective, home-based method of guiding parents and caregivers in a dialogic reading process can make a substantial contribution to ending school-readiness gaps, the precursor to persistent achievement gaps, and the cycle of economic and societal disadvantages they perpetuate. The market for early-education digital products is sizable and growing. Purchasers in this market include institutions (e.g., preschools, Head Start, social-service agencies, libraries), community initiatives, healthcare professionals working with families of young children, as well as individual families. This project will build a complex technology systems architecture to sell, distribute, manage, and evaluate educative materials on commonly available digital devices of all form factors. The product uses a proprietary system to build hybrid reading selections with separate visible layers targeted for the two audiences - children and the adults reading to them. This approach engages both audiences, while providing actionable and effective guidance for caregivers for whom dialogic reading may be a new or not yet habitual practice. Along with layered selections, a key innovation employed by this project will be a set of proprietary algorithms that learns from user behavior and tailors the program to the needs of each individual. To further increase efficacy, this project will include a secure data-sharing portal to allow institutional clients to evaluate school readiness among their constituencies and to manage their programs accordingly. A robust content management system will support a variety of sales options and allow for dynamic updates and additions to the system content. Finally, an engagement system based on behavioral psychology will be developed to promote application stickiness aimed at building routines of reading and dialogic thinking.

第一阶段项目将测试和优化一个软件系统和数字化工具，旨在促进6个月至5岁儿童的家长/家长介导的对话式阅读程序。早期接触对话式阅读已被证明可以促进几乎所有的入学准备指标，从认知和社会情感发展到词汇量的获得和对印刷品的概念。研究表明，科学学习也应该在进入幼儿园之前培养，所以孩子们开始正规学校教育与年龄相适应的内容和概念知识以及观察，实验和解决问题的能力。美国收入不平等的加剧凸显了缩小贫困儿童与富裕儿童之间日益扩大的成就差距的紧迫性。对幼儿期的投资已被证明可以弥补教育缺陷，因此，在对话式阅读过程中指导父母和照顾者的具有成本效益的家庭方法可以为消除入学准备差距做出重大贡献，这种差距是持续存在成绩差距的前兆，也是这种差距所造成的经济和社会劣势的循环。早期教育数字产品的市场规模庞大，而且还在不断增长。该市场的购买者包括机构（例如，幼儿园、开端、社会服务机构、图书馆）、社区倡议、与幼儿家庭以及个别家庭合作的医疗保健专业人员。该项目将建立一个复杂的技术系统架构，以销售，分发，管理和评估所有形式因素的常用数字设备上的教育材料。该产品使用一个专有的系统来建立混合阅读选择与单独的可见层针对两个观众-儿童和成人阅读给他们。这种方法吸引了两种受众，同时为对话阅读可能是新的或尚未习惯的实践的护理人员提供了可操作的有效指导。沿着分层选择，该项目采用的一个关键创新将是一套专有算法，该算法从用户行为中学习，并根据每个人的需求定制程序。为了进一步提高效率，该项目将包括一个安全的数据共享门户，使机构客户能够评估其选区的入学准备情况，并相应地管理其方案。一个强有力的内容管理系统将支持各种销售选择，并允许对系统内容进行动态更新和添加。最后，将开发基于行为心理学的参与系统，以提高应用粘性，旨在建立阅读和对话思维的常规。