The digital media are now an integral part of the communicative ecology of early childhood, positioning young children at the center of a significant social experiment concerning learning, language, and attention (Hirsh-Pasek et al. 3). This paper argues that early digital literacy should not be viewed as an early technical process, but as an emergent and multimodal sense-making process shaped by relationships, cultural contexts, and ethical limitations. Drawing on the synthesis of existing evidence, the article examines the power of interactive storybooks, literacy apps, and socially contingent video interactions to stimulate vocabulary development, narrative understanding, and pragmatic language, particularly when digital capabilities support, rather than disrupt, the story world (Takacs, Swart, and Bus 698; Bus, Takacs, and Kegel 81). Simultaneously, empirical evidence cautions against poorly conceptualised interactivity replacing dialogic interaction, augmenting cognitive load, and impairing story understanding (Parish-Morris et al. 200; Takacs, Swart, and Bus 699). The article offers a critical reflection on design, pedagogy, and power, contextualising early digital literacy within issues of surveillance, persuasive design, and the commodification of attention (Zuboff 8; Radesky et al. 1). It concludes with a proposal of evidence-based principles for ethically sound, language-sensitive interactive media to be implemented in inclusive early childhood environments.

Digital literacy, early childhood, language acquisition, interactive media, digital storybooks, multimodality, dialogic reading, inclusive pedagogy.