The result is 'The Bedtime Story Experience', a survey of parents ofchildren aged from three months to six years who attended the familycentre and school at Mount Pleasant Primary, Dudley.
Ms Bedford, former head of the school, said her aim was not to say thata book is better than a DVD but to find out whether parents were sharingactivities with children.
'A bedtime story is a wonderful opportunity to for bonding as well asfor developing communication skills,' she said. 'The assumption was thatsome children were watching a DVD or video in bed alone instead.
'I wanted to see if it was the general experience of children that theydo these activities alone. I was encouraged to find that in fact, it'srarely alone.'
She received 52 replies from families of the 60 children in nursery,finding that 78 per cent per cent of the children had access to videosor DVDs. While half of them watched a DVD or video during the day, only7 per cent watched DVDs in the evening.
Parents were asked if their children looked at comics, newspapers,magazines, advertisements and other reading material.
One nursery parent said their child 'pretends to read my shopping listin the supermarket'. Others cited stories on the CBeebies channel andthe internet, and 'letters, especially if they are addressed to mychild'.
Ms Bedford said, 'This was very rewarding and showed that the majorityof parents were very aware that print is all around and recognised theimportance of their role in communicating with their child.'
The study is available at www.gailbedford.com.
Questionnaires were sent to 250 parents from children aged three months,who attended the school's Family Centre, to Year 2 and 124 repliesreceived.