An Experiment of Young Children's Preferred Text Type for Reading in a Multimodal World

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 26
  In Roundtable Session: Early Childhood Literacy

Abstract

To investigate the influence of technology on young children reading, we compare 37
preschoolers’ preference and experience reading a print or digital book with children’s at-home
reading and technology use. Framed by social learning theory using a multiple case study
research design, data analysis includes descriptive statistics and multimodal discourse analysis. Parent responses show 36% support children reading digitally, with 14% of children reading both text-types. With the experiment, 65% of children chose the digital book; 27% of parent
predictions were accurate. No child who chose print requested to read more books. Children
initiated more discourse and were more engaged when reading digitally, swiping the iPad and
downloading more books to read. Results suggest motivation and engagement differences
between text-types.

Authors

• Lauren Eutsler, University of North Texas

• Julia Trotter, University of North Texas