The price of learning: Assessing cost versus quality in children's reading apps

This study examined the relationship between the cost of children's reading apps and their educational quality. We focused on three key indicators: (1) the percentage of new words introduced to children (literacy quality), (2) the percentage of digital features aligned with these new words (multimedia quality) and (3) the percentage of diverse characters represented in the story (diversity quality). To do so, we conducted a content analysis of 70 best-selling preschool storybook apps in the United States and used correlation analyses to explore associations between app cost and these quality indicators. Results showed a positive relationship between cost and all three dimensions of quality. These findings highlight the potential economic barriers to accessing high-quality preschool storybook apps and suggest that these apps may contribute to widening educational quality gaps rather than helping to close them.