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

这个第一阶段的项目将测试和优化一个软件系统和数字工具，旨在促进6个月至5岁儿童的父母/照顾者调解的对话阅读程序。研究表明，早期接触对话式阅读可以培养几乎所有的入学准备指标，从认知和社交情感发展到词汇习得和印刷概念。研究表明，科学学习也应该在进入幼儿园之前培养，因此孩子们开始接受正规教育时，要有与年龄相适应的内容和概念性知识，以及观察、实验和解决问题的能力。美国收入不平等的加剧突显了缩小贫困儿童与富裕同龄人之间日益扩大的成就差距的紧迫性。对幼儿的投资已被证明可以弥补教育缺陷，因此，在对话阅读过程中指导父母和照顾者的成本效益高、以家庭为基础的方法可以为消除入学准备差距做出重大贡献，这是持续存在的成绩差距的先兆，以及这种差距延续的经济和社会不利因素的循环。早期教育数字产品的市场规模很大，而且还在不断增长。这一市场的购买者包括机构(例如，学前班、学前班、社会服务机构、图书馆)、社区倡议、从事幼儿家庭工作的保健专业人员以及个人家庭。该项目将建立一个复杂的技术系统架构，以销售、分发、管理和评估各种形式的常见数字设备上的教育材料。该产品使用专有系统构建混合阅读选择，并针对两个受众-儿童和成人为他们朗读-单独的可见层。这种方法吸引了两个受众，同时为看护者提供了可行和有效的指导，对他们来说，对话阅读可能是一种新的或尚未养成习惯的做法。除了分层选择，这个项目采用的一个关键创新将是一套专有算法，它可以从用户行为中学习，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民中的学校准备情况，并相应地管理他们的计划。强大的内容管理系统将支持各种销售选项，并允许对系统内容进行动态更新和添加。最后，将开发一个基于行为心理学的参与系统，以促进应用程序粘性，旨在建立阅读和对话思维的常规。

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.