Exploring the relationship between kindergarteners’ buddy reading and individual comprehension of multimodal digital texts

To understand young children’s experience with multimodal digital texts, we investigated how 53 kindergarteners’ (ages 5-6) buddy reading behaviors (reading mode selection, sequential/non-sequential reading, hotspot use, use of modalities, use of monitoring) were related to their individual comprehension outcomes (prompted retelling, inference/critical- thinking, depth of target vocabulary knowledge) while reading app books. Multivariate mixed response analysis yielded these findings: (1) Buddy monitoring behaviors (e.g., ask questions, draw attention to book content, debate, or negotiate) were associated with higher vocabulary scores as well as higher inferences/critical thinking scores; (2) Triads had lower prompted retelling scores than dyads especially when reading longer app books. The findings highlight the importance to promote these positive buddy reading behaviors and pay attention to group size.