Touch screen devices have become very common in American children’s lives. Areas of focus where existing research shares issues among children under the age of three are how well children use information learned from screens to reason about events off-screen, using object retrieval and word learning tasks. Another area measures the impact of interactive screens on parent-child interactions and story comprehension during reading time. Touch screens exist everywhere and many parents turn to them for distraction purposes. Infants are able to learn new objects and actions from the information on the screen. They even are able to learn from the words they already know. Most households own smartphones with children. Studies show that 96.6% of children use devices before their first birthday. Research also found that children respond better with interaction. Young children were more successful in learning words and locations of hidden toys from screens when they were involved in specific contingent interactions, opposed to passively watching events unfold. Other research focused on learning during story time and identified the effects of screens and social interaction. It was found that children’s comprehension from the book was significantly higher than from the iPad. As one gets older, book advantages fade however. The individual is able to use the iPad in other ways that they may have not been able to do as a child. Their knowledge grows as age and experience do.
Reference
Lovato, S., & Waxman, S. (2016). Young Children Learning from Touch Screens: Taking a Wider View. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1078.
To me it is horrific that kids these days at such a young age are already using technology. That parents let kids have their own I-pads, or I-phones, causing them to have trouble interacting with people. Yet apparently this is todays norms, letting kids play video games, and have social media, and yet they don't know how to do things in person. How to make friends, or how to play with others. Honestly I believe technology is harming the growth of kids, not literally, but the mental growth, and how they learn to do things by themselves.
ReplyDeleteIt is crazy how young children are starting to use this type of technology. I do agree that it can teach the child more efficiently having to see new language on the screen. I just hope that children do not rely on this technology too much that they abandon the traditional toys used. I do see the benefits of using the touch screen but I hope children don't lose face to face interactions at an early stage.
ReplyDeleteThat is an interesting article I didn't know that children under the age of three can learn from screens to reason events off-screen,using object and word learning tasks.
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