"The screen shows movement - movement is interesting!" exploring effects of multimedia stories on preschool children's story comprehension and enjoyment

Purpose Using multimedia and print storybooks, the purpose of this paper is to compare preschool children’s reading engagement with and without adult support. Design/methodology/approach A within-subject design is used to explore the effects of multimedia stories in supporting preschool children’s story comprehension and reading enjoyment. A total of 24 children aged five to six years old from a local preschool in Taiwan participated in the experiments. Findings A statistical analysis revealed the (non)differences in story comprehension between multimedia and print storybooks, with and without adult support. A content analysis revealed several important themes affecting children’s reading enjoyment. These included multimedia elements (particularly motion and sound effects), haptic perception and the pause function. Research limitations/implications Native Chinese speaking children participated in one-to-one sessions in Taiwan. To ascertain the generalizability of the findings presented in this study, further research is encouraged in other cultural contexts and settings. Practical implications The paper provides insights into how multimedia and interactive features affect and enhance children’s enjoyment. Recommendations are made to assist library professionals to incorporate digital media into children’s programs. Originality/value Children’s reading motivation and engagement are often linked with improved reading attainments. This study elicited a range of perspectives and themes relating to what the children themselves felt influenced their enjoyment when reading print or multimedia storybooks. Findings were analyzed in a theoretical framework of facets of engagement