Developing an interactive software application to support young children's inference-making

We describe the design and development of a technology-based inference-making intervention system that includes a set of interactive learning modules, each of which engages students to (a) view age-appro- priate children's videos, (b) learn vocabulary words that are central to main ideas in each video, (c) re- spond to inferential questions, (d) receive scaffolding and specific feedback for each question, and (e) engage in a set of read-aloud lessons implemented by the classroom teacher and designed to promote transfer of inferencing from non-reading to reading contexts. First, we present the design principles that guided development, drawing on an integrated language comprehension framework. Next, we describe the design process, drawing on a field test of the usability and feasibility of the intervention system. Find- ings revealed that students and teachers found the system to be usable and helpful for support inference- making, and that it was feasible for classroom use. Then, we provide evidence from a field trial that showed that children who used the intervention system made gains in language comprehension, and that a version with 'offline' questioning (questions asked after viewing videos) was slightly superior to an 'online' version (questions asked during viewing). Finally, we highlight lessons learned that are informing additional development.