Collaborative Research: Parent-EMBRACE: An Embodied ITS for Improving Comprehension during fParent-Child Shared Reading

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Young Latino dual language learners are a growing segment of our society. Unfortunately, many of these children struggle with reading comprehension, and their parents do not always have the tools to support them. That is, the parents are often recent immigrants who are also poor readers in both Spanish and English, and thus read infrequently with their children. When these parents do engage in shared reading, they do not ask the sorts of questions that promote comprehension. This project will build upon the already-developed iPad application, EMBRACE, which helps dual language learners become successful readers of English. EMBRACE will be modified to encourage parent/child shared reading; to train the parents on how to ask questions that enhance comprehension; and to promote reading in both languages since reading skill transfers between languages. Thus, the work will potentially impact society by improving reading skills and educational achievement of both parents and children. The project will contribute to three areas of science. The first contribution is to the study of human-computer interaction. EMBRACE will be modified with the first intelligent tutoring system designed specifically for parent-child use, thus uncovering design principles for the creation of intelligent learning environments that are sensitive to how they are being used and by whom. Second, experimental testing of the new EMBRACE system with families will contribute to understanding the processes that enhance bilingual education and how interventions can positively influence these processes. Third, a component of the testing includes the use of electroencephalography to trace changes in brain activity produced by the intervention. Thus, the research contributes to the cognitive psychology and neuroscience of reading comprehension by using a combination of process data, outcome data, and neurocognitive data from both the children and their parents.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.