All Tapped Out: Touchscreen Interactivity and Young Children’s Word Learning

Abstract

Touchscreen devices differ from passive screen media in promoting physical interaction with events on the screen. Two studies examined how young children’s screen-directed actions related to self-regulation (Study 1) and word learning (Study 2). In Study 1, 30 2-year-old children’s tapping behaviors during game play were related to their self-regulation, measured using Carlson’s snack task: girls and children with high self-regulation tapped significantly less during instruction portions of an app (including object labeling events) than did boys and children with low self-regulation. Older preschoolers (N = 47, aged 4–6 years) tapped significantly less during instruction than 2-year-olds did. Study 2 explored whether the particular way in which 170 children (2–4 years of age) interacted with a touchscreen app affected their learning of novel object labels. Conditions in which children tapped or dragged a named object to move it across the screen required different amounts of effort and focus, compared to a non-interactive (watching) condition. Age by sex interactions revealed a particular benefit of dragging (a motorically challenging behavior) for preschool girls’ learning compared to that of boys, especially for girls older than age 2. Boys benefited more from watching than dragging. Children from low socioeconomic status families learned more object names when dragging objects versus tapping them, possibly because tapping is a prepotent response that does not require thoughtful attention. Parents and industry experts should consider age, sex, self-regulation, and the physical requirements of children’s engagement with touchscreens when designing and using educational content.

When and How Do Interactive Digital Media Help Children Connect What They See On and Off the Screen?

“…Specifically, toddlers who have difficulty resisting the impulse to tap the screen indiscriminately may learn more from watching noninteractive video than from using a game or application that requires them to interact with the screen in a prescribed way. Consistent with this hypothesis, toddlers who performed less well on a behavioral inhibition task also tapped more frequently than those with more optimal behavioral inhibition when using a customized word‐learning game on a tablet computer . Additionally, younger preschoolers and boys were less successful than older preschoolers and girls on the behavioral inhibition task.…”

Apps As Learning Tools: A Systematic Review

“…In 2 experimental studies, researchers examined children's vocabulary learning using an app compared with nonapp instruction (noninteractive video and picture card instruction) and found no differences in learning. 51,56 In 1 final study, researchers found that children's receptive and expressive vocabulary did not improve after 2 10-minute sessions using a storytelling app with their parents compared with no treatment. 52 Effect sizes for the RCTs, when reported (n = 12, from 3 school-based interventions over 1-9 weeks), ranged from 0.07 to 0.94.…”

Symbolic Understanding and Word–Picture–Referent Mapping from iPads in Autism Spectrum Condition: The Roles of Iconicity and Engagement

“…Krcmar and Cingel found that preschoolers showed greater learning from traditional books compared to e-books, with more relevant discourse between parents and children when sharing traditional print books. Moreover, Russo-Johnson et al (2017) found no difference in young children's word learning when images were viewed passively compared to an interactive condition.…”

“…iPad-based learning has been found to increase student engagement and reduce problem behaviour in both typically and atypically developing populations (El Zein et al 2016;Kucirkova et al 2014). Moreover, touch-screen interactivity allows for more information to be conveyed to the child through touch and motion and for information to be processed as an active experience, which may change how the information is encoded and stored (Russo-Johnson et al 2017).…”

“…However, it may also increase user-engagement and guide visual attention towards relevant features, improving learning. Indeed, studies to date report both positive (Highfield and Goodwin 2013;Schwartz and Plass 2014;Xie et al 2018) and negative (Radesky et al 2015;Russo-Johnson et al 2017) influences of interactivity on learning. Highfield and Goodwin (2013) stated that interactive iPad learning (through touch, repetition and exploration) complements the preferred learning style of those in infancy and early childhood.…”