Children's meaning-making with narrative apps in early years: investigating the interplay between young readers, teachers, and app design

Abstract

This thesis examines children’s interactions with narrative apps on iPads within English early years settings, focusing on the triadic relationship between children, their teachers, and narrative apps during shared reading events. Beyond children’s interactions, the research investigates how both teachers and app designers participate in and shape these reading practices. Grounded in multimodal social semiotics, particularly Gunther Kress' (2003) concept of reading-as-design, this study proposes an expansion of this theoretical framework to better reflect the active role of digital media and app developers in contemporary reading practices. By conceptualising readers as 'co-designers,' the research explores how children, teachers, and app developers collectively engage in the co-design of narrative apps and contribute to meaning-making processes. The study employed a qualitative, ethnographic methodology, collecting data from 11 four-year-olds, three early years teachers, and two narrative apps: The Hat Monkey (Fox and Sheep GmbH, 2014) and The Monster at the End... (Sesame Workshop, 2011). Data collection involved 22 video-recorded observations of child-teacher shared reading events with the selected apps, supplemented by video-stimulated reviews with teachers and detailed fieldnotes. All data were analysed multimodally using ELAN software. The findings demonstrate that children's engagement with narrative apps constitutes a complex, multimodal process that extends beyond conventional reading paradigms. Findings also highlight teachers' crucial mediating role in children's interactions with narrative apps, showing how their guidance fundamentally shapes children's reading experiences. Additionally, the research reveals the complex ways in which app design and the iPad interface contribute meaning-making, with features—such as visuals, intra- and extra-text interactives, and multi-touch functionality— acting as integral components of the reading process. This underscores the importance of recognising digital mediums and apps as active agents in literacy practises. Furthermore, the study extends Kress and van Leeuwen’s conceptualisation of representational meta-function by proposing two distinct participatory modalities: emic and etic. These modalities offer a novel lens through which to examine children's interactive participation in digital reading events in early years settings.