Interest as a predictor indicator of listening comprehension of digital storybooks by pre-school aged children

The aim of this study is to investigate what is the predictor value of individual and situational interest in the listening comprehension of digital stories by preschool children. The sample consisted of 36 infants and toddlers, who, after being divided into three groups, were exposed to listening to a different form of the same digital read aloud: interactive presentation, animation, static images and oral storytelling. Four measurements were used to assess the understanding of the story (story retelling, story sequencing, explicit comprehension and implicit comprehension), while parent report was used in order to assess the children"s interest in four dimensions (technology, stories, animals, plants). The results of the study show that the sector of technology has the highest results when measuring interest, while individual and situational interest are important predictors of story retelling, as well as of explicit and implicit comprehension of the story.