Does having a cellphone as a kid impact your reading comprehension?
A study conducted by UCLA researchers, and published in the journal Behavioral Sciences, followed third- and sixth-grade students from public schools in California’s Antelope Valley and Coptic Church schools in Los Angeles County to determine if cellphones interfered with the concentration needed for reading and testing, and if school phone bans improve students’ academic performance.
They asked students to read brief passages and answer questions afterward to assess their comprehension. They also collected information about cellphone ownership and usage.
The team found that there was a statistically significant link between simply owning a cellphone and lower reading comprehension scores in both groups. They also found there was no meaningful difference between kids who brought their phones to school and those who left them at home. This suggests that cellphone bans by themselves may not help improve reading performance.
However, the study identified one notable exception.
Children from homes where English was not the primary language seemed to benefit from using their phones to text at an early age.
The researchers showed that students from Arabic- and Spanish-speaking households who started texting in second or third grade had reading comprehension scores in sixth grade that were comparable to classmates who didn’t own phones at all.
Until now, few researchers have actively addressed this topic. Clearly, more studies need to be performed to determine the actual role cellphones play in weakening reading comprehension and the method by which this occurs.
Source:
Farrell, Paul. (July 28, 2026). “Could your child’s cellphone be hurting their reading? UCLA study raises new concerns.” The Independent. Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/ucla-elementary-cellphones-reading-scores-b3022817.html.
