Both in Holland and in Hungary narrative stories for young children are widely available on different platforms and devices like television, DVDs and educational websites, but more recently also on mobile media devices like tablets and smartphones. Such a transition from the traditional context of sharing a print picture storybook with an adult to children listening to electronic stories on different devices fundamentally changes children’s experience. Moreover, due to the array of technological features, there is a wide variety of electronic storybooks available for young children, including, for example, animations and options to turn the “pages”, click on parts of the pictures and play games. Both Dutch and Hungarian examples will be used to demonstrate current trends in the markets of electronic storybooks in these countries.

Accordingly, there is an urgent need to clarify whether technology can enhance the effects of storybook reading on children’s comprehension and learning and if so, which technological features are beneficial. We conducted a meta-analysis of the available empirical evidence (Takacs, Swart, & Bus, 2014, 2015). We expected an overall advantage of technology-enhanced stories over more traditional story presentations like print picture storybooks due to the extra information technology can convey during the story. Furthermore, we specifically focused on the effects of multimedia (animations, zooming, music and sound effects) and interactive features (‘hotspots’, games and questions). Multimedia elements were expected to be beneficial for learning while interactive features were hypothesized to distract children and diminish learning outcomes based on a narrative review of the literature (Bus, Takacs, & Kegel, 2014). It was hypothesized that well-designed multimedia elements provide nonverbal information that concretize the abstract language of the story and guide children’s attention to details in the illustration that helps story comprehension. In contrast, interactive elements were hypothesized to require children to keep switching between listening to the story and playing with the hotspots and the games and ultimately put children at a cognitive overload (Bus et al., 2014). Furthermore, we expected that children who are behind in language and literacy development might benefit more from technological additions as compared to their normally developing counterparts, specifically from multimedia elements that provide nonverbal information that might aid comprehension of the story language.

Bus, A. G., Takacs, Z. K., & Kegel, C. A. T. (2014). Affordances and limitations of electronic storybooks for young children's emergent literacy. Developmental Review. doi:10.1016/j.dr.2014.12.004 Takacs, Z. K., & Bus, A. G. (under review). Benefits of motion in animated storybooks for children’s comprehension. An eye-tracking study. Takacs, Z. K., Swart, E. K., & Bus, A. G. (2014). Can the computer replace the adult for storybook reading? A meta-analysis on the effects of multimedia stories as compared to sharing print stories with an adult. Frontiers in Psychology, 5. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01366 Takacs, Z.K., Swart, E.K., & Bus, A.G. (2015). Benefits and pitfalls of multimedia and interactive features in technology-enhanced storybooks. A meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research. doi:10.3102/0034654314566989