Study: Preschoolers Learn Similarly for Digital and Print Books

Reading stories aloud to children has long been proven to boost early literacy skills, but less has been revealed about the impact of a story’s format on learning. Now, new research says that preschool-age children will comprehend a story in both digital and print formats if they enjoy the story’s content.

According to an announcement from New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development (NYU Steinhardt), researchers recently conducted a study, funded by Amazon, that found children ages 3 to 4 comprehend stories “equally well” regardless of the medium used to tell the story. 

For the study, four storybooks were read aloud to 38 children. Two of the books were digital stories from Speakaboos, a free literacy app, and had interactive animation, text narration and additional features. The other two were print books. After the children listened to each story, they were tested for “story comprehension, vocabulary and motivation for reading across media formats”; researchers found “no significant differences.”

Furthermore, the study concluded that while nothing can exactly mimic the experience of an adult reading aloud to a child, “there are certain features in video that might enhance word learning, especially for children with limited vocabulary,” said Susan Neuman, a professor of childhood and literacy education at NYU Steinhardt, in the announcement. Neuman co-authored the study with Kevin Wong, a doctoral student in the Department of Teaching and Learning at NYU Steinhardt, as well as Tanya Kaefer, a professor at the Department of Education at Lakehead University in Canada.

The research was presented at the American Educational Research Association’s annual meeting in San Antonio, May 1.

About the Author

Sri Ravipati is Web producer for THE Journal and Campus Technology. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • robot typing on a computer

    Microsoft Unveils 'Computer Use' Automation in Copilot Studio

    Microsoft has announced a new AI-powered feature called "computer use" for its Copilot Studio platform that allows agents to directly interact with Web sites and desktop applications using simulated mouse clicks, menu selections and text inputs.

  • AI microchip under cybersecurity attack, surrounded by symbols of threats like a skull, spider, lock, and warning shield

    Report Finds Agentic AI Protocol Vulnerable to Cyber Attacks

    A new report from Backslash Security has identified significant security vulnerabilities in the Model Context Protocol (MCP), technology introduced by Anthropic in November 2024 to facilitate communication between AI agents and external tools.

  • educators seated at a table with a laptop and tablet, against a backdrop of muted geometric shapes

    HMH Forms Educator Council to Inform AI Tool Development

    Adaptive learning company HMH has established an AI Educator Council that brings together teachers, instructional coaches and leaders from school district across the country to help shape its AI solutions.

  • illustration of a human head with a glowing neural network in the brain, connected to tech icons on a cool blue-gray background

    Meta Introduces Stand-Alone AI App

    Meta Platforms has launched a stand-alone artificial intelligence app built on its proprietary Llama 4 model, intensifying the competitive race in generative AI alongside OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and xAI.