Which Interactive Features in Children’s Digital Picture Books Promote Reading Comprehension? A Meta-Analysis

This meta-analysis examined which interactive features incorporated into children’s digital picture books influence story comprehension. Through a systematic literature review, we identified 20 relevant articles comparing picture books with and without interactive features, encompassing a total of 1,978 children between the ages of 2 and 8 years. We coded the interactive features in the digital books, specifically focusing on mini-games, questions, hotspots that trigger animations, sounds, or verbal comments—often to explain concepts or difficult words—and incentives for reader-performed actions that mirror those of the story’s characters. Research Findings: The effect sizes of interactive features on story comprehension were, on average, close to zero. In line with multimedia learning theory, studies incorporating mini-games negatively affected story comprehension, while those featuring actions aligned with story protagonist’s actions positively supported comprehension. Hotspots were particularly common, but neither hotspots nor questions effectively supported comprehension, likely because both introduce pauses that disrupt the natural flow of story processing. Practice or Policy: Our findings highlight that interactive digital books have the potential to help children understand stories, but this potential is realized in only a small fraction of the digital books included in the research. We recommend conducting further research on books specifically designed to incorporate features aligned with children’s cognitive processing.