Using Touchscreen Tablets to Help Young Children Learn to Tell Time

Abstract

Young children are devoting more and more time to playing on handheld touchscreen devices (e.g., iPads). Though thousands of touchscreen apps are claimed to be “educational,” there is a lack of sufficient evidence examining the impact of touchscreens on children’s learning outcomes. In the present study, the two questions we focused on were (a) whether using a touchscreen was helpful in teaching children to tell time, and (b) to what extent young children could transfer what they had learned on the touchscreen to other media. A pre- and post-test design was adopted. After 10 min of exposure to an iPad touchscreen app designed to teach time, three groups of 5- to 6-year-old children (N = 65) were, respectively, tested with an iPad touchscreen, a toy clock or a drawing of a clock on paper. The results revealed that post-test scores in the iPad touchscreen test group were significantly higher than those at pre-test, indicating that the touchscreen itself could provide support for young children’s learning. Similarly, regardless of being tested with a toy clock or paper drawing, children’s post-test performance was also better than pre-test, suggesting that children could transfer what they had learned on an iPad touchscreen to other media. However, comparison among groups showed that children tested with the paper drawing underperformed those tested with the other two media. The theoretical and practical implications of the results, as well as limitations of the present study, are discussed.

Transfer of Problem Solving Skills from Touchscreen to 3D Model by 3- to 6-Year-Olds

“…Indeed, the current task appears to require cognitive engagement adequately complex to result in problem-solving learning (e.g., Bauer and Mandler, 1992 ). Consistent with these findings are those of Wang et al (2017) , which report that 5- to 6-year-old children, learned how to tell time from a touchscreen time-telling app and then apply what they had learned from the touchscreen to a toy clock. Both our tasks and theirs required children to focus on rules and thus contrast imitation tasks where greater attention may be given to the superficial differences around modality.…”

Young children and tablets: A systematic review of effects on learning and development

“…The use of mobile applications was found to effectively support near but not far transfer incidents. Two experimental studies evidenced transfer of learning about time (Wang, Xie, Wang, Hao, & An, ) and measurement of animals (Alade, Lauricella, Beaudoin‐ryan, & Wartella, ). In both studies, the inherent interactivity (e.g., manipulating items on the screen) of mobile applications was found to support near transfer learning.…”

“…The 14 studies reporting positive effects from using tablets devices concerned enhanced vocabulary skills (Teepe et al, ; Walter‐laager et al, ), reading and writing skills (Beschorner & Hutchison, ; Masataka, ; M. Neumann, ; M. M. Neumann, ), enhanced Math or science knowledge and skills (Alade et al, ; Mattoon et al, ; Miller et al, ; Schacter & Jo, ; Wang et al, ; Watts et al, ), earlier fine motor development (correlational study; Bedford et al, ), enhanced problem‐solving skills (S. Huber, Krist, & Wilkening, ), and general improvements in literacy, numeracy, social interaction, and growth in confidence (case study; Clarke & Abbott, ). Mixed findings were reported in relation to emergent writing skills and science knowledge and skills of older children (Herodotou, ; Patchan & Puranik, ; Schroeder & Kirkorian, ).…”

Learning from Apps and Objects: The Human Touch

“…Additionally children who were taught novel animal facts by an experimenter or an app with a talking cartoon llama learned equally well (Kwok et al, 2016). For specific skills like telling time or measuring, preschoolers successfully learn from touchscreens (Aladé, Lauricella, Beaudoin-Ryan, & Wartella, 2016;Wang, Xie, Wang, Hao, & An, 2016), but it is unclear whether they would learn just as much from using physical objects.…”