Learning to read: The disadvantage of digital practices for younger learners

By Ashley Grant, Center for Research and Reform in Education, Johns Hopkins University

As digital devices replace physical books in classrooms and homes, many parents, teachers, and school administrators wonder whether this digital reading practice has the same benefits for developing readers as traditional books. Altamura, Vargas, and Salmeron tackled this question in a recently published study in the Review of Educational Research, specifically studying the effect of “leisure” reading on a digital device on reading comprehension. They reviewed 26 studies (representing 469,564 individuals) published between 2000 and 2022.

The authors found an effect size (correlation) of r = 0.06. This shows a link between greater leisure digital reading activities and greater reading comprehension. However, this effect size pales in comparison to prior effect sizes from reviews of print-reading leisure on reading comprehension, which averages closer to r = 0.35 for grades 1-12. The authors also identified substantive variation in this effect by age group: the relationship was negative for students in primary and middle school grades but positive for high school and college age, implying that digital reading in younger students has a negative impact on their reading comprehension.

Of note for interpreting this effect size, the digital reading activities included not just reading of virtual texts but other online “reading” activities including email, browsing the internet, chatting online, etc. However, the authors’ investigation comparing more text-based (“linear”) activities to more social-communicative activities did not reveal a significant difference in the relationship to reading comprehension.

These findings mirror conclusions found in other research studies of print vs digital reading that have been summarized in BEIB and may be accessed here.