Merel van Goch (CLS), Esther Steenbeek-Planting (CLS and DCCN) and Yayun Zhang (MPI) have received a Radboud Young Academy Cross-Faculty Catapult Grant. They will receive a grant of €5,000 which will enable them to carry out their interdisciplinary research into improving reading comprehension in children.
The three researchers aim to create a societal impact by investigating how children can be helped to understand and engage more deeply with what they read or hear when they read a story or have one read to them.
The team will develop a 'Critical Worlds' matrix based on texts from children's books in order to personalise children's reading exercises in the Letterprins game, with the aim of increasing children's engagement and comprehension when reading. Their aim is to apply interdisciplinary insights from CLS, DCCN and MPI, and ultimately bring this application to market for the benefit of children.
The key to reading enjoyment and reading motivation is immersion: ideally, the reader is fully immersed in the story world. However, teachers, parents and libraries recognise that this is a challenge for young readers, as they are also still struggling with the technical aspects of learning to read. Through our research, we provide young readers with prior knowledge, enabling them to become fully immersed in stories. Which worlds must a child be familiar with to become engrossed while reading a specific book? – Merel van Goch
About the Radboud Young Academy Cross-Faculty Catapult Grants
Radboud Young Academy Cross-Faculty Catapult Grants are awarded annually by the Radboud Young Academy to academics at Radboud University to encourage collaboration with colleagues from outside their own faculty or institute. Each year, two grants of €5,000 each are awarded to one-year interdisciplinary initiatives.