Chapter 5. Affordances and challenges of digital reading for individuals with different learning profiles

The ability to successfully learn using digital media is becoming one of the most important skills for students of the 21st century and requires a range of cognitive and metacognitive skills. Children with learning disabilities, however, often have weaknesses with these skills, and may experience difficulties reading and understanding texts presented digitally. On the other hand, digital texts allow for different supports that may be beneficial for children with learning disabilities. Thus, it is important to examine the influence of digital environments on the reading abilities of individuals with specific learning difficulties. In this chapter, we review both the challenges and affordances of digital environments for individuals with reading difficulties and attention deficits. We then examine the contribution of digital interventions and electronic books to the promotion of literacy skills in these populations. We conclude with a call for more rigorous research to understand the challenges that children with different learning profiles face when learning with digital materials.