The effectiveness of Tier 1 digital interventions for early reading: A meta‐analysis

Abstract

AbstractReading is a fundamental skill to acquire during children's school career. The present meta‐analysis examined research on the effectiveness of digital technologies to foster early reading skills during Tier‐1 interventions (ie, high‐quality core reading instruction which is intended to promote learning for all children). Unlike previous meta‐analyses, this meta‐analysis investigated the effectiveness in a broad way, taking into account cognitive versus non‐cognitive learning outcomes, near versus far transfer outcomes and immediate versus delayed outcomes. Furthermore, different study characteristics were taken into account including participant characteristics, the targeted reading subskills, duration of intervention, type of technology and the level of integration. A total of 568 effect sizes from 72 studies encompassing 60,890 participants were analysed using a meta‐analytic three‐level model. A Hedges'g effect size of 0.37 was obtained, suggesting that using digital technologies generally have a positive, albeit small, effect compared to traditional teaching methods. Moderator analyses indicated that this effect was robust to cognitive and non‐cognitive outcomes, near and far transfer outcomes, and immediate and delayed outcomes, but differed by participants' age and study quality. Recommendations are formulated to push forward research on how digital interventions can be effectively implemented in the classroom. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Digital technologies can foster (early) reading skills. Meta‐analyses to date focus only on the effect of digital reading interventions in terms of cognitive outcomes. Unclear how different factors moderate the effectiveness of digital reading interventions (eg, type of technology, trained content, level of integration). What this paper adds Results corroborate previous findings indicating a positive but small effect compared to traditional teaching methods. This study provides some evidence that this effect was robust to cognitive and non‐cognitive outcomes, near and far transfer outcomes, and immediate and delayed outcomes. The effect differed by participants' age and study quality. Game elements, adaptivity and whether the intervention was well integrated made little difference to the effectiveness of the intervention. Implications for practice and/or policy The results confirm that digital reading interventions are effective in fostering cognitive, non‐cognitive and efficiency outcomes. Call for more intervention studies investigating how game characteristics and the level of integration of a digital tool moderate the effectiveness. There is a need for reports of pilot studies investigating the effectiveness of recent digital technologies such as AR and VR.