Project LITT focuses on the roles that technology can play in improving the reading skills of students with learning disabilities. Research efforts center around one type of reading software: hypermedia-based children's literature programs, sometimes called "talking storybooks."

Talking storybooks are one of the most common types of reading programs. Among the most familiar are series such as Living Books (e.g., Just Grandma and Me), Discis Books, and WiggleWorks. These programs read stories aloud to students in realistic digitized speech, colorful graphics accompany the text, and students can often interact with both the text and graphics in the stories.

The questions under study in Project LITT concern the effectiveness of this type of software for students with learning disabilities. Talking storybook programs offer many potential advantages: they are interesting and motivating, they are often highly interactive and engage students' attention, and they support the reading process by reading text aloud. However, the motivational features of the programs may distract students with learning disabilities from the reading task. It is unclear whether these programs are beneficial for this group of learners.

The first step in the study of the effectiveness of hypermedia-based children's literature programs was to identify and describe the characteristics of all existing programs.

Of interest in this project were CD-ROM-based programs offering interactive versions of children's literature. Excluded were programs with no text, those that did not offer speech, and those with nonfiction text (e.g., science and social studies programs). Also excluded were programs with estimated readability levels of grade 9 and above.

The next studies in Project LITT focused on the instructional value of talking storybook programs for students with learning disabilities. All were conducted in classroom settings.

Two exploratory studies took place in 1997-98. First, naturalistic methods were used to gather information about the strategies students with learning disabilities use when they interact with talking storybook programs. Students were observed and videotaped as they interacted with programs under unstructured conditions. In general, students chose to access those portions of the programs that did not require reading. Students spent much of their time interacting with hot spots in the graphics, engaging in activities in the programs, and playing games; little time was spent interacting with the text. Reading gains were minimal.

In the second exploratory study of 1997-98, different levels of instructional support were provided to students to determine the types of interventions needed to maximize reading gains. Two levels of instructional support were studied: moderate and more intense. In the moderate condition, students were asked to read aloud the text on each "page" of the talking storybook program. In the more intense condition, students read that text aloud until their performance met a minimum criterion for accuracy. As instructional support increased, students' gains in reading recognition skills also increased.

In 1998-99, a large-scale investigation will be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of talking storybooks in improving reading skills. In addition, a case study approach will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of bilingual versions of this software for bilingual students with learning disabilities.

Project LITT
San Diego State University
6505 Alvarado Road, Suite 204
San Diego, CA 92120-1878

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