Emergent literacy in print and electronic contexts: The influence of book type, narration source, and attention

Screen time and preschool children: Promoting health and development in a digital world

COVID-19 transformed the family media environment and spurred research on the effects of screen media exposure and use on young children. This update of a 2017 CPS statement re-examines the potential benefits and risks of screen media in children younger than 5 years, with focus on developmental, psychosocial, and physical health. Four evidence-based principles-minimizing, mitigating, mindfully using, and modelling healthy use of screens-continue to guide children's early experience with a rapidly changing media landscape. Knowing how young children learn and develop informs best practice for health care providers and early years professionals (e.g., early childhood educators, child care providers). Anticipatory guidance should now include child and family screen use in (and beyond) pandemic conditions.

Interactive technology use and child development: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

There is mixed evidence regarding the impact of interactive digital devices on child development. Tentatively some studies suggested that the use of digital devices may correlate negatively with language, executive function, and motor skills. However, attempts to amalgamate this evidence has been limited related to the available number of experimental and cohort studies that have evaluated the impact of digital technology use on child development. We conducted this review to determine the impact of interactive digital devices on child development among children aged 7 years or younger. Interactive technology has been defined as methods, tools, or devices that users interact with in order to achieve specific tasks.

DATA SOURCE

To carry out this systematic review, databases CINAHL, MEDLINE, Embase, PsychINFO, Scopus and Google Scholar were searched for relevant studies.

STUDY SELECTION

We used the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for systematic reviews.

DATA EXTRACTION

Data extraction and synthesis was carried out by two reviewers and checked by a third reviewer. Studies were stratified into tiers depending on the level of evidence provided and the domain of development assessed.

RESULTS

Fifty-three studies were eligible for inclusion in the review, 39 Tier 1 (randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental studies) and 16 Tier 2 (descriptive studies). Children's use of interactive digital technology was positively associated with receptive language and executive function and negatively associated or unrelated to motor proficiency. Other critical aspects informing the evidence, such as dose of exposure, intensity, or duration, were inconsistently reported, making estimates of exposure tentative and imprecise.

CONCLUSION

The studies included in this review were predominantly correlational or comparative in nature and focuses on cognitive domains of learning rather than a specific developmental outcome. It is difficult to generalize our findings beyond the digital devices or applications that have been evaluated by earlier studies. The contextual factors that may moderate the relationship require elaboration in future studies.

Reading activities compensate for low education-related cognitive deficits

BACKGROUND

The incidence of cognitive impairment is increasing with an aging population. Developing effective strategies is essential to prevent dementia. Higher education level is associated with better baseline cognitive performance, and reading activities can slow down cognitive decline. However, it is unclear whether education and reading activities are synergistic or independent contributors to cognitive performance.

METHODS

This was a sub-study of an ongoing prospective community cohort of China National Clinical Research Center Alzheimer's Disease and Neurodegenerative Disorder Research (CANDOR). Demographic and clinical information, educational levels, and reading activities were collected. All participants finished neuropsychological testing batteries and brain MRIs. We analyzed cognitive performance and brain structures with education and reading activities.

RESULTS

Four hundred fifty-nine subjectively cognitively normal participants were enrolled in the study. One hundred sixty-nine (36.82%) of them had regular reading activities. Participants in the reading group had better performance in all cognitive tests compared with those in the non-reading group, but no difference in brain MRI variables. Participants with higher education levels (more than 13 years) had better cognitive performance and higher hippocampal volumes. In low education groups (less than 12 years), more reading activities were associated with better cognitive test scores.

CONCLUSIONS

Both education and reading activities are important and synergistic for baseline cognitive function. Higher education level is associated with larger hippocampal volumes. Education may stimulate the growth and development of the hippocampus. Reading activities help to maintain and improve cognitive function in people with low levels of education.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

NCT04320368.

Toddlers raised in multi-dialectal families learn words better in accented speech than those raised in monodialectal families

Multi-accent environments offer rich but inconsistent language input, as words are produced differently across accents. The current study examined, in two experiments, whether multi-accent variability affects infants' ability to learn words and whether toddlers' prior experience with accents modulates learning. In Experiment 1, two-and-a-half-year-old Norwegian toddlers were exposed, in their kindergarten, twice per day for one week, to a child-friendly audiovisual tablet-based e-book containing four novel pseudowords. Half of the toddlers heard the story in three Norwegian accents, whereas the other half heard it in one Norwegian accent. The results revealed no differences between conditions, suggesting that multi-accent variability did not hinder toddlers' word learning. In experiment 2, two-and-a-half-year-old Norwegian toddlers were exposed, in their homes, for one week, to the e-book featuring three Norwegian accents. The results revealed overall better learning in toddlers raised in bi-dialectal households, as compared to mono-dialectal peers - suggesting that accent exposure benefits learning in multi-accent environments.

Toddlers Using Tablets: They Engage, Play, and Learn

Although very young children have unprecedented access to touchscreen devices, there is limited research on how successfully they operate these devices for play and learning. For infants and toddlers, whose cognitive, fine motor, and executive functions are immature, several basic questions are significant: (1) Can they operate a tablet purposefully to achieve a goal? (2) Can they acquire operating skills and learn new information from commercially available apps? (3) Do individual differences in executive functioning predict success in using and learning from the apps? Accordingly, 31 2-year-olds (M = 30.82 month, SD = 2.70; 18 female) were compared with 29 3-year-olds (M = 40.92 month, SD = 4.82; 13 female) using two commercially available apps with different task and skill requirements: (1) a shape matching app performed across 3 days, and (2) a storybook app with performance compared to that on a matched paper storybook. Children also completed (3) the Minnesota Executive Functioning Scale. An adult provided minimal scaffolding throughout. The results showed: (1) toddlers could provide simple goal-directed touch gestures and the manual interactions needed to operate the tablet (2) after controlling for prior experience with shape matching, toddlers’ increased success and efficiency, made fewer errors, decreased completion times, and required less scaffolding across trials, (3) they recognized more story content from the e-book and were less distracted than from the paper book, (4) executive functioning contributed unique variance to the outcome measures on both apps, and (5) 3-year-olds outperformed 2-year-olds on all measures. The results are discussed in terms of the potential of interactive devices to support toddlers’ learning.

Read, speak, sing: Promoting early literacy in the health care setting

This statement will help health care providers assess and advise on early literacy with families in almost any practice setting. It defines emergent literacy skills, including early language learning and storytelling, and explores the benefits of reading, speaking, and singing with infants and toddlers for both children and caregivers. Book sharing at bedtime and other language-related routines positively affect family, relational, and social-emotional health. Early exposure to any language, when spoken at home, can benefit literacy learning in other languages children may encounter. Specific recommendations for clinicians counselling families on early literacy are included.

Lisez, parlez, chantez : la promotion de l'alphabétisation précoce dans le milieu de la santé

Le présent document de principes aidera les dispensateurs de soins à évaluer l'alphabétisation précoce dans les familles et à leur donner des conseils, et ce, dans presque tous les contextes d'exercice. On y définit les habiletés d'alphabétisation émergente, y compris l'apprentissage précoce du langage et des récits oraux, et on y explore les bienfaits de la lecture, de la parole et de la chanson auprès des nourrissons et des tout-petits, tant pour eux que pour les adultes qui en sont responsables. La lecture partagée au coucher et d'autres habitudes liées au langage ont un effet positif sur la santé familiale, relationnelle et socioaffective. L'exposition précoce à la langue parlée à la maison peut contribuer à l'alphabétisation dans les autres langues auxquelles l'enfant pourrait être exposé. On y trouve enfin des recommandations particulières pour les cliniciens qui conseillent les familles en matière d'alphabétisation précoce.

The Distance Between the "Self" and the "Other" in Children's Digital Books

This conceptual paper contributes toward our understanding of the underlying mechanisms in children’s understanding of self and the other with media. We synthesize diverse bodies of literature, concerned with children’s reading with digital and traditional (print) books, to explicate the parameters that may, in part, explain positive learning outcomes and further illuminate the patterns across various measures. We propose the “Distance Model,” which suggests that a child’s interest in a reading activity depends on its proximity to the child’s funds of identity (Esteban-Guitart and Moll, 2014). The closer the proximity, the more salient the impact on the child’s cognitive understanding and sense of belonging. The familiarity of the reading content and the relevance of the reading medium for a child’s personal life can be evoked through a number of reading strategies and design techniques, which we discuss in relation to children’s literature and the contemporary design of children’s interactive e-books. We conclude with some suggestions regarding future applications of the Distance Model in children’s media research.

Can Touchscreen Devices be Used to Facilitate Young Children's Learning? A Meta-Analysis of Touchscreen Learning Effect

Because of the continuous stream of touchscreen apps that are claimed to be educational and the increasing use of touchscreen devices in early childhood, considerable attention is being paid to the effect of touchscreens on young children's learning. However, the existing empirical findings in young child samples are not consistent. In this meta-analysis we tested the overall effect of touchscreen devices on young children's (0- to 5-year-olds) learning performance, as well as moderators of this effect, based on 36 empirical articles (79 effect sizes) involving 4,206 participants. The overall analysis showed a significant touchscreen learning effect (d = 0.46), indicating that young children indeed benefited from touchscreen learning. Interestingly, age, learning material domain, comparison group, and experimental environment significantly moderated the effect of touchscreen devices on young children's learning outcome. These findings shed light on the role of touchscreen-related physical experience in early childhood education.