2021 – 2025

Augmented Reality (AR) books offer new opportunities for interaction and engagement, and additional features provide potential to support children’s reading comprehension, yet there is currently very little research in this area.  This project aims to capture and understand children’s (aged 7-10) experiences with AR books, specifically focusing on whether there are benefits to reading engagement and comprehension.  A particular focus will be on understanding whether, to what extent, and how, AR books have potential to support and engage children with reading difficulties.

Aims:

Study 1: To explore to what extent, and how, children perceive the features of AR storybooks as supportive of their reading engagement and comprehension.

Study 2: To explore to what extent, and how, AR shared book reading experiences influence the quantity and type of book-talk among children with reading difficulties.

Publications from this research project can be found here:

Alhamad, K., Manches, A., & McGeown, S. (2024) Augmented Reality Books: In-depth insights into children’s reading engagement.  Frontiers in Psychology:  https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1423163/full

Alhamad, K. (2023). BERA Special Issue Blogpost: https://www.bera.ac.uk/blog/technology-to-support-reading-engagement-should-schools-include-augmented-reality-ar-books-on-their-shelves

To learn more about this project you can contact Kawla Alhamad: K.Alhamad@sms.ed.ac.uk

Project Team:

PhD Researcher: Kawla Alhamad, University of Edinburgh

First Supervisor: Professor Sarah McGeown, University of Edinburgh
Second Supervisor: Professor Andrew Manches, University of Edinburgh

You can access the preregistration for the first study in this project, here: https://osf.io/9q678

You can access the preregistration for the second study in this project, here: https://osf.io/x6r4z