Children learning to read in a digital world

One of the keynote speakers at the international conference this summer was Jenny Thomson, Professor of Language and Literacy and Director of Research and Innovation for the School of Allied Health Professions, Nursing and Midwifery, University of Sheffield. In this article, we summarise some of the key themes of her presentation examining research into children learning to read in a digital world.

Technology has radically changed the way we read

Reading on screens can bring both benefits and difficulties. Digital devices can be alluring and appealing by capturing our attention and inviting us to click from place to place. Children and young people often find digital text more appealing than a traditional paper-based medium and are increasingly more familiar with reading on screens.

How can we research this to understand the implications for learning to read?

1. We can think about digital text as a reading medium: reading on screens as opposed to reading from paper.
2. We can also think about digital text as a learning mechanism: how we can best use technology to help children learn to read using software and Apps.

As a reading medium, digital text can be presented in a large variety of ways which will impact on the reading experience and the learner’s engagement with it: the type of device, the size of the screen, whether adverts are popping up, back-lighting, font type and size.

Such learning will also depend on the relationship between the reader, the text and the reading purpose. When looking at why some children struggle to read, therefore, it is important to understand how they are struggling and what is the purpose of their reading.

For example, if they are information gathering, they may be scanning text in a very different way than if they are reading a story for pleasure. Research projects need to take this into account when assessing the interaction between a learner and the technology that they are using.

Is a small screen helpful for a dyslexic reader?

Professor Thomson’s early research explored the hypothesis that reading on a small screen such as a phone or iPod could be helpful for a dyslexic reader. The research was carried out among a sample of secondary students with reading disabilities at a high school in Massachusetts.

The research found that in readers with a low visual attention span, their reading comprehension was lower when reading from paper and better when reading from a small text window on screen. While those with a better visual attention span did better reading from paper and worse on screen. This demonstrates that even within a group of struggling readers there is no single effect of digital technology on literacy acquisition.

What is the explanation for this result? Well, when reading text, an individual’s attention is consistently drawn a bit ahead of the text that they’re comprehending at any one moment. So, the attention continually moves forward, almost blanking out the text that has already been processed.

However, when an individual is struggling to read, inhibiting and blocking out what has already been read is harder, especially if there is a larger window of text to process (as typically on paper). The pull of the old text can be stronger, but when there is a smaller text window (like a phone screen) there’s no old text to draw the attention back because it’s no longer visible.

What can we learn from other research?

Professor Thomson outlined some findings from meta-analyses, which are particularly useful for busy practitioners because they summarise research findings.

Reading comprehension
A summary of 30 articles looking at children’s reading comprehension on paper versus digital text found that children’s comprehension of the story is typically lower in the digital book edition. The role of the adult is very important here too. An adult’s mediation during paper book reading was more effective than a child reading a digital book independently, even with digital support available such as an e-dictionary and other aids to help the child make meaning. However, with no adult available and with story-congruent enhancements available, digital books outperformed paper books.

Digital text as a learning mechanism
Learning to read using digital tools, such as software to teach phonics for example, is becoming increasingly widespread. There are advantages and challenges of digital tools for learning. We know that learning to read by digital games can be very motivating for children. It is also great at offering systematic learning and feedback and may be more consistent than an adult in this respect, particularly at picking up errors.

However, while technology may be good at detecting errors, it can only tell the child that they have made a mistake, it cannot help them identify why, troubleshoot, or give them different things to try to help them rectify the error. Technology is likely to just get them to repeat the process over and over again and can’t analyse what the child is doing or adapt teaching strategies for an individual child in the way that a teacher can.

Professor Thomson outlined her current research investigating the process of literacy learning through online games, such as Graphogame, which provides the possibility of working with big data sets to understand progress and identify struggling readers. This is showing promise in the early detection of struggling readers.