A study by Spanish researchers found that digital devices do little to improve reading skills — including decoding, vocabulary, and comprehension.
Even though many kids grow up with phones in their hands, the researchers urge educators and parents to encourage elementary-age students to read printed books more often.
The Medium Matters
In recent years, phones, tablets, and computers have created new reading habits and pushed printed publications to the sidelines. They haven’t completely replaced print — and many researchers think they won’t. Paper books are still better suited to learning to read.
A team from the University of Valencia analyzed 25 studies from 2000 to 2022, covering about 470,000 participants in roughly three dozen countries. Their meta-analysis found that digital devices do not improve students’ ability to read and understand text.
They estimated that 10 hours of leisure reading on paper produced comprehension levels six to eight times higher than 10 hours spent reading the same material on a screen.
Co-author Lydia Altamura said the team had expected that leisure digital reading — like browsing educational or news websites — would deepen text comprehension. It did not.
They found almost no link between leisure-time digital reading — even for educational content — and comprehension among elementary and middle school students. High school and college students showed somewhat better comprehension when reading on screens, according to The Independent.
What the researchers concluded
Lydia Altamura said, “For developing readers, leisure-time digital reading does not benefit comprehension.”
The researchers proposed two reasons why digital reading may not have the same effect for novice readers as printed reading does.
First, reading on a screen can be distracting because devices typically offer many other functions.
Second, online reading often encourages skimming, exposes readers to lower-quality texts, and presents a narrower vocabulary than print.
The authors emphasize that educators and parents should encourage elementary students to read printed books more often than they read on digital devices.
The results of the study were published in the Review of Educational Research.
