Reading Bees: Adapting and Testing a Mobile App Designed to Empower Families to Read more Interactively with Children in Distinct Geographical and Cultural Contexts

PROJECT SUMMARY Many children arrive at kindergarten unprepared to learn to read, at-risk of falling more behind, with major inequities linked to race, geography and poverty (rates >50%). These are amplified during disruptions such as COVID, when access to information and resources is perturbed. Low proficiency is strongly linked to adverse

school, vocational and health outcomes, with estimated costs >$350 billion/year. As parents are a child’s “first and most important teachers,” home reading routines have a large impact on these outcomes. However, there are wide disparities in these between high- and low-resource families, fueled by household stressors, cultural

differences, literacy challenges and other factors. Marginalized families also often face barriers to access of reliable literacy-promoting information, programs and resources, worsening disparities. Given trusted access to families when parenting routines are shaped, health providers are poised to help mitigate these barriers, yet

guidance tends to be general, inconsistent and can fade-out at home. The objective of the proposed project is to enhance, “localize” and test a new, free mobile app designed to provide reliable shared reading guidance and resources for parents (Reading Bees; RB) in an efficient, engaging way. The rationale is that no similar

approach exists, RB is free and designed to enhance existing programs, and there is evidence that its features will be useful and effective. Content is evidence-based and has been co-developed with input from community stakeholders and families from disadvantaged backgrounds. Core principles are clarity, credibility, flexibility

(e.g., parents set their own goals), responsiveness (child age, family concerns, ZIP), engaging content (tips, videos, resources) and positive reinforcement (“LitCoin” awards). The long-term goal of this project is to use RB to help improve reading and literacy outcomes. To achieve this, teams in 3 culturally distinct areas (OH,

WV, FL) will collaborate in a 3-year project. Content will first be added to address needs in each community: lists of local reading-related resources curated by area stakeholders and a Spanish language version of RB. Enhanced, “localized” RB will then be tested with parents in each area, first through focus groups to gauge

usefulness and guide refinement, and then by providing RB to parents (ages 0-6) during clinic visits and measuring use over the next 2 months. Outcome measures involve feasibility, acceptance and useflness. The central hypothesis is that local stakeholders will be engaged by the opportunity to highlight resources in their

area; families will rate RB content as useful and use RB often, especially to earn LitCoin awards; and improved access to information and resources will fuel better reading and literacy outcomes. This work is significant and innovative as it involves a tech-enabled, user-centered approach that is scalable within existing pediatric,

library and program infrastructure and empowers parents to read more interactively and access reliable information. The expected outcome is that this work will provide vital enhancements to RB, show feasibility and usefulness and provide a flexible, collaborative model to “localize” and scale use of RB into other areas.