The impact of joint media engagement on parent–child interactions: A systematic review

Sleep-dependent memory consolidation of televised content in infants

Infants face the constant challenge of selecting information for encoding and storage from a continuous incoming stream of data. Sleep might help in this process by selectively consolidating new memory traces that are likely to be of future relevance. Using a deferred imitation paradigm and an experimental design, we asked whether 15- and 24-month-old infants (N = 105) who slept soon after encoding a televised demonstration of target actions would show higher imitation scores (retention) after a 24-h delay than same-aged infants who stayed awake for ≥4 h after encoding. In light of infants' well-known difficulties in learning and remembering information from screens, we tested if increasing the relevance of the televised content via standardised caregiver verbalisations might yield the highest imitation scores in the sleep condition. Regardless of sleep condition, 24-month-olds exhibited retention of target actions while 15-month-olds consistently failed to do so. For 24-month-olds, temporal recall was facilitated by sleep, but not by parental verbalisations. Correlational analyses revealed that more time asleep within 4 h after encoding was associated with better retention of the target actions and their temporal order in 24-months-olds. These results suggest that sleep facilitates memory consolidation of screen-based content in late infancy and that this effect might not hinge on caregivers' verbal engagement during viewing.

"They Don't Come With a Handbook": Exploring Design Opportunities for Supporting Parent-Child Interaction around Emotions in the Family Context

Parenting practices have a profound effect on children's well-being and are a core target of several psychological interventions for child mental health. However, there is only limited understanding in HCI so far about how to design socio-technical systems that could support positive shifts in parent-child social practices in situ. This paper focuses on parental socialisation of emotion as an exemplar context in which to explore this question. We present a two-step study, combining theory-driven identification of plausible design directions with co-design workshops with 22 parents of children aged 6-10 years. Our data suggest the potential for technology-enabled systems that aim to facilitate positive changes in parent-child social practices in situ, and highlight a number of plausible design directions to explore in future work.

The association between screen media quantity, content, and context and language development

This study investigates the influence of the quantity, content, and context of screen media use on the language development of 85 Saudi children aged 1 to 3 years. Surveys and weekly event-based diaries were employed to track children's screen use patterns. Language development was assessed using JISH Arabic Communicative Development Inventory (JACDI). Findings indicate that the most significant predictor of expressive and receptive vocabulary in 12- to 16-month-olds was screen media context (as measured by the frequency of interactive joint media engagements). In older children (17- to 36-month-olds), more screen time (as measured by the amount of time spent using screens, the prevalence of background TV at home, and the onset age of screen use) had the highest negative impact on expressive vocabulary and mean length of utterance. These findings support health recommendations on the negative effects of excessive screen time and the positive effects of co-viewing media with children.

Early language outcomes in Argentinean toddlers: Associations with home literacy, screen exposure and joint media engagement

This study aimed to analyse the contribution of mothers' home literacy beliefs and practices and the quantity and quality of screen media exposure on Argentinean toddler's language. In addition, we considered parent-child joint engagement, as well as adult scaffolding behaviours during the use of electronic devices. A total of 465 mothers of 18-36 months old children completed an online survey including: the MacArthur Bates CDI, home literacy, screen exposure, joint engagement and scaffolding questionnaires. We observed positive effects of literacy beliefs, PC times and verbal scaffolding on language outcomes. TV exposure contributed negatively to vocabulary and, along with educational content, to sentence use. Shared reading and screen media experiences can be an opportunity for language stimulation, provided there is dialogue and joint engagement. Passive screen exposure and inadequate content may be detrimental for toddlers' language outcomes, probably by displacement of socially significant interactions.

Mother-child synchrony is high across child executive function levels for both physical and digital spatial play

PURPOSE

Play is a powerful influence on children's learning and parents can provide opportunities to learn specific content by scaffolding children's play. Parent-child synchrony (i.e., harmony, reciprocity and responsiveness in interactions) is a component of parent-child interactions that is not well characterized in studies of play.

PROCEDURES

We tested whether children's executive function relates to mother-child synchrony during physical and digital play in sixty mother-child dyads.

MAIN FINDINGS

Mother-child synchrony did not relate to children's executive function or differ by play type (physical, digital), though during digital play mother-child synchrony was higher for girls relative to boys.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings suggest that mother-child synchrony is not influenced by children's executive function and physical and digital play can be similarly beneficial in offering the opportunity for responsive, reciprocal, dynamic interactions. The sex difference suggests that further factors should be explored as influences of play synchrony.

Moment-to-Moment Observation of Parental Media Use and Parent-Child Interaction: Quality and Media Multitasking

Mobile media proliferation throughout society has infused and complicated environments that formerly were interaction rich (e.g., waiting rooms, restaurants, and playgrounds) with the presence of smart devices. Ethnographic studies have indicated that parental use negatively impacts parent-child interaction quality. The current study reviews and expands on previous research through observing systematically parent-child interaction quality throughout the course of an entire meal (30-140 minutes). Utilizing five-minute intervals, across 93 parent-child dyads, we assessed both within- and between-person moment-to-moment changes in parenting quality (i.e., parental positivity, negativity, and engagement) in the context of parental media use. Between-person, only positivity appeared to decrease when comparing low and high parental media use. Within-person findings indicated that when the parent demonstrated higher than their typical media use, we noted a significant decrease in the quality of engagement and positivity. Differing from ethnographic studies, no change in negativity was identified within-person. Utilizing a lagged interval analysis, we identified a pattern of increased parental engagement with their child following intervals with parental media use, identifying a pattern of parental media multitasking heretofore only observed in ethnographic studies. Implications of findings in the context of previous research and future directions are discussed.

Parent Verbalizations and Toddler Responses With Touchscreen Tablet Nursery Rhyme Apps

OBJECTIVES

In some studies, parents and toddlers verbalize less when engaging with a tablet versus a print book. More needs to be known regarding child contributions to specific parent verbalizations. We examined parent-toddler contingent interactions with tablet applications versus print books, as well as moderators of these associations.

METHODS

We conducted a laboratory-based, within-subjects counterbalanced study of 72 parent-toddler dyads engaging with a nursery rhyme application (with enhanced + autonarration [E+A] and enhanced formats) and print book. We coded parent verbalizations (eg, dialogic, nondialogic) and proportions of child responses to these in 5-second epochs. Poisson regressions were used to analyze within-subjects variance by tablet or print format. We tested effect modification by child emotion regulation and home media practices.

RESULTS

Children responded more to parent overall (print 0.38; E+A 0.31, P = .04; enhanced 0.11, P = .01), dialogic (print 0.21; E+A 0.13, P = .04; enhanced 0.1, P = .02), and nondialogic (print 0.45; E+A 0.27, P < .001; enhanced 0.32, P < .001) verbalizations during print book versus tablet. Stronger child emotion regulation, greater frequency of co-viewing, and instructive practices moderated associations such that differences between conditions were no longer significant for some parent verbalizations and child responses.

CONCLUSIONS

Parent-toddler reciprocal verbal interactions occurred less frequently with tablet versus print book use. Child emotion regulation and parent home media practices moderated some of these associations. Pediatricians may wish to promote co-viewing and instructive media practices but may also consider that child emotion regulation may determine response to interactive tablet design.

Augmented Reality for Supporting Adult-child Shared Reading

Augmented reality (AR) stories offer a new opportunity for parents and teachers at libraries and schools to explore electronic stories. Embedded with multimedia design, AR allows diverse paths of exploration in the story contexts for shared story-reading experiences among parents and children. In this study, parents in the reading community (a library and a school) were provided with AR guided support and a skill-building activity. Observations and in-depth interviews were conducted to collect qualitative data. Inductive analysis was used to summarize the findings. Results of the study were summarized in the following themes: Prior adult-child reading experiences; Novelty with AR reading; Parents’ scaffolding for using AR; Interactive reflective thinking from AR reading; Positive responses from learning of shared reading; and Parents’ suggestions and concerns. It was observed that the AR reflective reading approach encouraged parents to play an active role in guided reading. Children and parents were positive about their active participation in the AR-mediated exploratory reading context. With the AR guided support and skill-building activity, parents applied the scaffolded-reading skills in the AR reading intervention. The AR-mediated reading approach is promising and open to more dynamic design of interactive features.

2-Year-Olds Learning From 2D Media With and Without Parental Support: Comparing Two Forms of Joint Media Engagement With Passive Viewing and Learning From 3D

The study investigates to what degree two different joint media engagement (JME) strategies affect children's learning from two-dimensional (2D)-media. More specifically, we expected an instructed JME strategy to be more effective than a spontaneous, non-instructed, JME strategy. Thirty-five 2-year old children saw a short video on a tablet demonstrating memory tasks together with a parent. The parents were randomized into two groups: One group (N = 17) was instructed to help their child by describing the actions they saw on the video while the other group (N = 18) received no specific instruction besides "do as you usually do." The parents in the instructed group used significantly more words and verbs when supporting their child but both groups of children did equally well on the memory test. In a second step, we compared the performance of the two JME groups with an opportunistic comparison group (N = 95) tested with half of the memory tasks live and half of the tasks on 2D without any JME support. Results showed that the JME intervention groups received significantly higher recall scores than the no JME 2D comparison group. In contrast, the three-dimensional (3D) comparison group outperformed both JME groups. In sum, our findings suggest that JME as implemented here is more effective in promoting learning than a no JME 2D demonstration but less so than the standard 3D presentation of the tasks.