Abstract:

“Screen inferiority” refers to a well-established finding among adults and teenagers who exhibit higher reading comprehension performance when reading from paper than from a screen. However, research focusing on readers in the initial steps of reading acquisition is scarce. The COVID-19 zeitgeist and shutdown of schools may have played a significant role in the reading differences between the two modalities. For long periods of time, children learned to read in front of a computer screen with the remote presence of a teacher.

In the present study, we examined second and third graders’ reading comprehension performance in the two modalities and their preferences for a specific modality. In addition, we examined whether the effect of modality is different between struggling and typical readers. The participants consisted of 380 second graders and 351 third graders.

The results suggested no differences in reading comprehension between the two modalities in the second and third grades. The only group that showed screen inferiority consisted of struggling readers in the second grade. The numeric proportion of modality preferences tended toward computer rather than paper, except for the struggling readers in the second grade, who showed equivalent preferences.

The findings imply that prolonged exposure to screen reading with the mediation of a teacher is valuable for increasing students’ ability to comprehend digital texts.

Keywords:

Digital reading, reading modality, reading comprehension, modality preference, COVID-19.