Impact of storybook type on kindergarteners' storybook comprehension

The purpose of this study was to examine impact of non-realistic and realistic storybooks on kindergarteners' storybook listening comprehension. One hundred and three kindergarteners ranging in age from 49 to 71 months, with a mean age of 62.08 months (SD = 4.97) from three public kindergartens participated in the study. Participants listened to non-realistic and realistic storybooks and responded to questions on character recall, event recall, plot, reasoning, and problem-solving. One week later, children responded to the same questions in order to measure the impact of persistency in learning. The characters in the non-realistic storybook were animals. This was the sole difference between the two types of storybooks. Findings from both measurements (post-test and follow-up test) revealed statistically significant differences in storybook comprehension in favour of the realistic group. Investigators concluded that realistic storybooks make significant contribution to children's storybook comprehension; therefore, the use of realistic storybooks in early childhood should increase.