Baby FaceTime: can toddlers learn from online video chat?

Look at Grandma! Joint visual attention over video chat during the COVID-19 pandemic

Social interactions are crucial for many aspects of development. One developmentally important milestone is joint visual attention (JVA), or shared attention between child and adult on an object, person, or event. Adults support infants' development of JVA by structuring the input they receive, with the goal of infants learning to use JVA to communicate. When family members are separated from the infants in their lives, video chat sessions between children and distant relatives allow for shared back-and-forth turn taking interaction across the screen, but JVA is complicated by screen mediation. During video chat, when a participant is looking or pointing at the screen to something in the other person's environment, there is no line of sight that can be followed to their object of focus. Sensitive caregivers in the remote and local environment with the infant may be able to structure interactions to support infants in using JVA to communicate across screens. We observed naturalistic video chat interactions longitudinally from 50 triads (infant, co-viewing parent, remote grandmother). Longitudinal growth models showed that JVA rate changes with child age (4 to 20 months). Furthermore, grandmother sensitivity predicted JVA rate and infant attention. More complex sessions (sessions involving more people, those with a greater proportion of across-screen JVA, and those where infants initiated more of the JVA) resulted in lower amounts of JVA-per-minute, and evidence of family-level individual differences emerged in all models. We discuss the potential of video chat to enhance communication for separated families in the digital world.

Digital Media and Developing Brains: Concerns and Opportunities

Purpose of Review

The incorporation of digital technologies and their use in youth's everyday lives has been increasing rapidly over the past several decades with possible impacts on youth development and mental health. This narrative review aimed to consider how the use of digital technologies may be influencing brain development underlying adaptive and maladaptive screen-related behaviors.

Recent Findings

To explore and provide direction for further scientific inquiry, an international group of experts considered what is known, important gaps in knowledge, and how a research agenda might be pursued regarding relationships between screen media activity and neurodevelopment from infancy through childhood and adolescence. While an understanding of brain-behavior relationships involving screen media activity has been emerging, significant gaps exist that have important implications for the health of developing youth.

Summary

Specific considerations regarding brain-behavior relationships involving screen media activity exist for infancy, toddlerhood, and early childhood; middle childhood; and adolescence. Transdiagnostic frameworks may provide a foundation for guiding future research efforts. Translating knowledge gained into better interventions and policy to promote healthy development is important in a rapidly changing digital technology environment.

Touchscreens can promote infant object-interlocutor reference switching

We re-examine whether the type of object played with influences parent-infant joint attention. A within-participants comparison of 24 parent-9-month-old dyads, used head-mounted eye-tracking to measure parental naming and infant attention during play with touchscreen apps on a touchscreen tablet or matched interactive toys. Infants engaged in sustained attention more to the toy than the tablet. Parents named objects less in toy play. Infants exhibited more gaze shifts between the object and their parent during tablet play. Contrasting previous studies, these findings suggest that joint tablet play can be more interactive than with toys, and raise questions about the recommendation that infants should not be exposed at all to such technology.

CCLOOW: Chinese children's lexicon of oral words

In this article, we introduce the Chinese Children's Lexicon of Oral Words (CCLOOW), the first lexical database based on animated movies and TV series for 3-to-9-year-old Chinese children. The database computes from 2.7 million character tokens and 1.8 million word tokens. It contains 3920 unique character and 22,229 word types. CCLOOW reports frequency and contextual diversity metrics of the characters and words, as well as length and syntactic categories of the words. CCLOOW frequency and contextual diversity measures correlated well with other Chinese lexical databases, particularly well with that computed from children's books. The predictive validity of CCLOOW measures were confirmed with Grade 2 children's naming and lexical decision experiments. Further, we found that CCLOOW frequencies could explain a considerable proportion in adults' written word recognition, indicating that early language experience might have lasting impacts on the mature lexicon. CCLOOW provides validated frequency and contextual diversity estimates that complements current children's lexical database based on written language samples. It is freely accessible online at https://www.learn2read.cn/ccloow .

Vulnerabilities Prompting Use of Technology and Screen by Mothers of Autistic Children in India: Lived Experiences and Comparison to Scientific Literature

Technology and screen media has its place in every home, yet the influences of the same are less known. This research aims to explore the vulnerabilities that prompt the mothers to use screen media for their children, prior to a diagnosis of autism for their child. It also aims to explore literature the influence of screen media on speech and language development in children. This study combined semi-structured interviews with 16 mothers of autistic children in Southern India and a scoping literature review that resulted in 24 articles. The literature refers to a positive influence when co-viewing with the child, and it predominantly highlights improvements in speech and not in language. The interviews revealed that screens were used as a means of support, a language and learning development tool, or as a calming technique. Thus, the study shows that the mothers resorted to screen use for their children more out of helplessness, and not as an informed choice. Mothers of autistic children clearly express their vulnerabilities and indicate feelings of being lost without advice, with regard to use of screen-time. This suggests a need for more research into how they can be supported.

Screen Time and Its Health Consequences in Children and Adolescents

Nowadays, children and adolescents are exposed to digital media (DM) from an early age. Therefore, specific guidelines have been published by the World Health Organization, whose aim is to limit daily screen time (ST) viewing. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, a rise in DM use, and consequently ST viewing, was observed. More and more aspects of modern life are thought to be affected by excessive ST viewing. Accordingly, the aim of this review is to document the health effects of excessive ST viewing on children and adolescents. A narrative review was performed in searchable databases. In total, 43 original articles were considered. Excessive ST viewing was correlated with increased risk for obesity and other cardiometabolic risk factors, mental health, unhealthy dietary habits and eating disorders, and problems in development and child-parent relationships. Sleep, physical activity, eyesight, headaches, and the musculoskeletal system were negatively affected as well. However, the effect of ST was weighted by the type of media used and the way types of media were used. Other confounding factors were reported. There is evidence to suggest a negative correlation between excessive ST and youth health exists. Nevertheless, more research is needed if this correlation is to be established.

Screen media exposure and young children's vocabulary learning and development: A meta-analysis

This meta-analysis synthesizes research on media use in early childhood (0-6 years), word-learning, and vocabulary size. Multi-level analyses included 266 effect sizes from 63 studies (Ntotal  = 11,413) published between 1988-2022. Among samples with information about race/ethnicity (51%) and sex/gender (73%), most were majority White/Non-Hispanic and between 40%-60% female. Analyses revealed a small overall positive relation between screen media exposure and vocabulary (r = .23). Experimental studies yielded a small-to-medium effect (r = .30), with stronger effects for e-books than TV/video or games/apps, and non-significant effects for video chat. In correlational studies, there was no overall association between vocabulary size and naturalistic media exposure (r = .07), with the exception of naturalistic exposure to educational media (r = .17).

Exploring the perception of parents on children's screentime: a systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative studies

BACKGROUND

Screentime (ST) has been increasingly pervasive in young children. Evidence suggests positive and negative effects of ST on children's development. Parents play a crucial role in influencing their children's ST. There is limited research consolidating the parental perceptions related to children's ST. This review consolidates the evidence on the perception of parents on their children's ST.

METHODS

Six electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, PsycINFO, Scopus, and ProQuest) were searched from their inception to September 2022. Critical appraisal was conducted using the Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP) checklist. Data synthesis was performed using Sandelowski and Barroso's approach.

RESULTS

Twenty studies were included in this review, encapsulating the experiences of 1,311 parents. Three main themes with corresponding subthemes were identified: (1) Varied reasons behind ST; (2) Attitudes toward ST; and (3) Strategies and approaches to managing ST.

CONCLUSION

The findings highlighted the varied reasons parents promote ST. Parents reported their concerns and confusion about ST and shared some strategies and approaches for better ST. Future research is needed to develop and evaluate educational programs to ensure that parents understand the risks and benefits of ST and in turn, ensure the appropriate adoption of ST for their children.

IMPACT

In the digital era, parents' attitudes towards screentime (ST) for their children are mixed. This review presents the dilemma parents face and their struggles with using optimal screen time for their children. This review provides up-to-date evidence on the parents' confusion and concerns about ST as well as strategies and approaches used by the parents for better ST. There is an urgent need for evidence-based educational programs to enhance parental knowledge about ST so that they can ensure appropriate ST among children.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION

PROSPERO Registration No. CRD42022356083.

Revisiting the video deficit in technology-saturated environments: Successful imitation from people, screens, and social robots

The "video deficit" is a well-documented effect whereby children learn less well about information delivered via a screen than the same information delivered in person. Research suggests that increasing social contingency may ameliorate this video deficit. The current study instantiated social contingency to screen-based information by embodying the screen within a socially interactive robot presented to urban Australian children with frequent exposure to screen-based communication. We failed to document differences between 22- to 26-month-old children's (N = 80) imitation of screen-based information embedded in a social robot and in-person humans. Furthermore, we did not replicate the video deficit with children imitating at similar levels regardless of the presentation medium. This failure to replicate supports the findings of a recent meta-analysis of video deficit research whereby there appears to be a steady decrease over time in the magnitude of the video deficit effect. We postulate that, should the video deficit effect be truly dwindling in effect size, the video deficit may soon be a historical artifact as children begin perceiving technology as relevant and meaningful in everyday life more and more. This research finds that observational-based learning material can be successfully delivered in person, via a screen, or via a screen embedded in a social robot.

Should I follow your virtual gaze? Infants' gaze following over video call

From 10 months of age, human infants start to understand the function of the eyes in the looking behavior of others to the point where they preferentially orient toward an object if the social partner has open eyes rather than closed eyes. Thus far, gaze following has been investigated in controlled laboratory paradigms. The current study investigated this early ability using a remote live testing procedure, testing infants in their everyday environment while manipulating whether the experimenter could or could not see some target objects. A total of 32 11- and 12-month-old infants' looking behavior was assessed, varying the experimenter's eye status condition (open eyes vs closed eyes) in a between-participant design. Results showed that infants followed the gaze of a virtual social partner and that they preferentially followed open eyes rather than closed eyes. These data generalize past laboratory findings to a noisier home environment and demonstrate gaze processing capacities of infants to a virtual partner interacting with the participants in a live setup.

Screen technology exposure and infant cognitive development: A scoping review

PROBLEM

There has been some concern that screen exposure is harmful to an infant's cognitive development, but the effects of screen technologies on cognition are not fully understood. A scoping review was conducted to determine what evidence exists about screen exposure and cognitive development in children ages birth to 24 months.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

Inclusion = 1) English language; 2) studies focusing on children under 24 months of age; 3) cognitive development; 4) screen exposure. Exclusion = 1) articles over 25 years old; 2) structure, function and physiology of the brain; 3) social development; 4) psychosocial development; 5) motor development; 6) abnormal development/mental health; 7) behavior; 8) content only, not screen exposure e.g., social media; 9) secondary sources.

SAMPLE

Ten studies met the inclusion criteria. Articles included one retrospective chart review, six longitudinal studies, two cross-sectional studies, and one prospective study.

RESULTS

Of the ten studies in this review, six reported correlations between screen exposure and cognitive delay, one study reported positive cognitive outcomes and three reported no significant positive or negative outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

From the evidence in this scoping review, no causal relationship has been found between screen exposure and infant cognitive harm. Some correlations between screen exposure and cognitive delay were reported. Some positive cognitive outcomes were also reported.

IMPLICATIONS

Future research should focus on the context of screen viewing as opposed to dosage or exposure. More robust methodologies should be used to assess infant cognition and screen usage.

Screen Media Exposure in Early Childhood and Its Relation to Children’s Self-Regulation

Self-regulation, the ability to control thoughts, emotions, and behavior for goal-directed activities, shows rapid development in infancy, toddlerhood, and preschool periods. Early self-regulatory skills predict later academic achievement and socioemotional adjustment. An increasing number of studies suggest that screen media use may have negative effects on children’s developing self-regulatory skills. In this systematic review, we summarized and integrated the findings of the studies investigating the relationship between young children’s screen media use and their self-regulation. We searched the ERIC, PsycINFO, PubMed, and Web of Science databases and identified 39 relevant articles with 45 studies. We found that screen time in infancy is negatively associated with self-regulation, but findings were more inconsistent for later ages suggesting that screen time does not adequately capture the extent of children’s screen media use. The findings further indicated that background TV is negatively related to children’s self-regulation, and watching fantastical content seems to have immediate negative effects on children’s self-regulatory skills. We suggest that future studies should take the content and context of children’s screen media use into account and also focus on parent- and home-related factors such as parental behaviors that foster the development of self-regulatory skills.

Virtual Grandparenting: Identifying Barriers to Supportive Video Chat between Grandparents and Grandchildren

Many grandparents today are physically separated from their families. Given that maintaining close family relationships (with both adult children and grandchildren) is associated with increased physical, mental, and emotional health across generations, it is important to determine how families can maintain close relationships with grandparents when physically separated. Technology offers one potential support: the proliferation of video chat. Recent work suggests that the frequency of video chat and the variety of behaviors engaged in during video calls predicts family closeness and enjoyment of using this communication method, regardless of the physical distance between parties. However, the frequency of grandparent-grandchild video chat varies across families. Here, we explore how demographic, physical (e.g., distance), technological (e.g., number of devices and barriers), and social factors (e.g., children are distracted) predicted: (1) whether or not video chat was used by grandparent-grandchild dyads, and (2) the frequency of video chat in the families using the technology. This work suggests that geographical distance, having met in person, and the number of devices owned were positive predictors of grandparents and grandchildren having ever video chatted. However, the factors associated with the frequency of video chat were different in the parent and grandparent models and included grandparents’ comfort with technology and the type of device used by the parent and child. These findings not only have implications for supporting grandparent-grandchild relationships but also for all family members separated by distance, immigration, incarceration, health emergencies, and displacement.

Implications of video chat use for young children's learning and social-emotional development: Learning words, taking turns, and fostering familial relationships

Parents of young children use video chat differently than other screen media, paralleling expert recommendations (e.g., American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Communications and Media, 2016), which suggest that video chat, unlike other screen media, is acceptable for use by children under 18 months. Video chat is unique among screen media in that it permits contingent (time-sensitive and content-sensitive) social interactions. Contingent social interactions take place between a child and a partner (dyadic), with objects (triadic), and with multiple others (multi-party configurations), which critically underpin development in multiple domains. First, we review how contingent social interaction may underlie video chat's advantages in two domains: for learning (specifically learning new words) and for social-emotional development (specifically taking turns and fostering familial relationships). Second, we describe constraints on video chat use and how using chat with an active adult (co-viewing) may mitigate some of its limitations. Finally, we suggest future research directions that will clarify the potential advantages and impediments to the use of video chat by young children. This article is categorized under: Linguistics > Language Acquisition Psychology > Learning Cognitive Biology > Social Development.

Effects of screen exposure on young children's cognitive development: A review

The past decade has witnessed a rapid increase in the use of screen media in families, and infants are exposed to screens at younger ages than ever before. The objective of this review is twofold: (1) to understand the correlates and demographic factors determining exposure to screens, including interactive screens, when available, and (2) to study the effects of watching screens and using touchscreens on cognitive development, during the first 3 years of life. We argue that the effects of screen viewing depend mostly on contextual aspects of the viewing rather than on the quantity of viewing. That context includes the behavior of adult caregivers during viewing, the watched content in relation to the child's age, the interactivity of the screen and whether the screen is in the background or not. Depending on the context, screen viewing can have positive, neutral or negative effects on infants' cognition.

Presence at a distance: Video chat supports intergenerational sensitivity and positive infant affect during COVID-19

COVID-19 disrupted infant contact with people beyond the immediate family. Because grandparents faced higher COVID-19 risks due to age, many used video chat instead of interacting with their infant grandchildren in person. We conducted a semi-naturalistic, longitudinal study with 48 families, each of whom submitted a series of video chats and surveys, and most (n = 40) also submitted a video of an in-person interaction. Families were mostly highly-educated, White/Caucasian, and lived between 1 and 2700 miles apart. We used multilevel models to examine grandparents' and parents' sensitivity during video chat across time (centered at February 1, 2021, the approximate date of vaccine availability). Grandparent video chat sensitivity changed as a function of date and parent sensitivity. Parent sensitivity changed as a function of date, grandparent sensitivity, and geographic distance. We then modeled infants' affective valence during video chat and in-person interactions with their grandparents, which was only predicted by grandparent sensitivity, not modality or other factors. This study demonstrates that caregivers were sensitive toward infants during video chat interactions despite fluctuations in family stress and reduced in-person contact during COVID-19 and that grandparent sensitivity predicted positive infant affect during both video chat and in-person interactions.

Psychosocial well-being of Flemish foster children residing in their foster homes during the COVID-19 lockdown

The measures implemented to contain the COVID-19 pandemic profoundly affected the lives of children and families all around the world, probably affecting children's psychosocial well-being. The negative consequences of lockdowns are presumed to hit even harder on vulnerable groups such as foster children who already struggle with their psychosocial well-being in normal circumstances and who face specific challenges during lockdowns such as: additional help that is no longer available or only offered digitally and physical contact with birth parents that is forbidden. Nevertheless, some scholars point to the positive side of lockdowns (e.g.: relief due to closure of schools). This study aims to asses the psychosocial well-being of Flemish foster children residing in their foster homes during the COVID-19 lockdown and the factors that are associated with the change in their psychosocial well-being. 888 foster parents reported on the psychosocial well-being of just as many foster children through the Brief Assessment Checklist for Children and Adolescents. The COVID-19 lockdown was not associated with a decreased psychosocial well-being of Flemish foster children residing in their foster homes during the lockdown. Foster parents reported a slight improvement in their relationship with their foster child during the lockdown which points to a positive consequence of the lockdown. In addition, this improvement was positively associated with an increased psychosocial well-being during adverse circumstances and should therefore be enhanced. The type and amount of contact with birth parents is significantly associated with foster children's changed psychosocial well-being during the lockdown. Foster parents who reported an increase in alternative contact (e.g., (video)calls and messages) between their foster child and his/her birth parent(s) during the lockdown, also reported an increase in their foster child's psychosocial well-being during that period.

Remote Research Methods: Considerations for Work With Children

The growing shift to online research provides numerous potential opportunities, including greater sample diversity and more efficient data collection. While online methods and recruitment platforms have gained popularity in research with adults, there is relatively little guidance on best practices for how to conduct remote research with children. The current review discusses how to conduct remote behavioral research with children and adolescents using moderated (i.e., real-time interactions between the experimenter and child) and unmoderated (i.e., independent completion of study without experimenter interaction) methods. We examine considerations regarding sample diversity and provide recommendations on implementing remote research with children, including discussions about remote software, study design, and data quality. These recommendations can promote the use of remote research amongst developmental psychologists by contributing to our knowledge of effective online research practices and helping to build standardized guidelines when working with children.

Social interaction is a catalyst for adult human learning in online contexts

Human learning is highly social.^1-3 Advances in technology have increasingly moved learning online, and the recent coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has accelerated this trend. Online learning can vary in terms of how "socially" the material is presented (e.g., live or recorded), but there are limited data on which is most effective, with the majority of studies conducted on children^4-8 and inconclusive results on adults.^9,10 Here, we examine how young adults (aged 18-35) learn information about unknown objects, systematically varying the social contingency (live versus recorded lecture) and social richness (viewing the teacher's face, hands, or slides) of the learning episodes. Recall was tested immediately and after 1 week. Experiment 1 (n = 24) showed better learning for live presentation and a full view of the teacher (hands and face). Experiment 2 (n = 27; pre-registered) replicated the live-presentation advantage. Both experiments showed an interaction between social contingency and social richness: the presence of social cues affected learning differently depending on whether teaching was interactive or not. Live social interaction with a full view of the teacher's face provided the optimal setting for learning new factual information. However, during observational learning, social cues may be more cognitively demanding¹¹ and/or distracting,^12-14 resulting in less learning from rich social information if there is no interactivity. We suggest that being part of a genuine social interaction catalyzes learning, possibly via mechanisms of joint attention,¹⁵ common ground,¹⁶ or (inter-)active discussion, and as such, interactive learning benefits from rich social settings.^17,18.

Associations among average parental educational attainment, maternal stress, and infant screen exposure at 6 months of age

Evidence suggests that increased use of screens early in life may have negative developmental consequences for children. However, little is known concerning parental factors that predict initial screen exposure in infancy. The primary goal of this study was to examine whether parental educational attainment and maternal stress were associated with infant screen exposure by 6 months of age. A diverse sample of mothers (N = 93) was recruited prenatally. In a follow-up visit when the infants were six months of age (N = 82), we examined factors that may be associated with initial infant exposure to screens. First, mothers reported whether they had already exposed their infants to screens. Thereafter, those mothers who reported already having exposed their infants to screens were further queried to determine the extent of infant screen use. Results demonstrated that among infants exposed to screens, mothers reported an average of nearly 3 h of daily screen use. Average parental educational attainment, but not maternal stress, was significantly associated with initial infant exposure. Of those families who endorsed screen exposure by 6 months, 70 % reported a screen in the room where the child sleeps, nearly half reported using screens to help calm the infant, and about a third reported using a screen at least sometimes during meals, when going to sleep, and while waiting. Parental education around infant screen use behaviors may be important to help promote child development and outcomes.

Infant media use: A harm reduction approach

There are a myriad of potentially harmful developmental outcomes associated with infant digital media use. Studies revealing risk associated with early media use have informed the current American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommendations that discourage most digital media use among children under 18 months of age. Recent research advances, however, suggest potential benefits of technology engagement in this age group. Additionally, surveys of parents reveal that most infants engage with digital media for at least 30 min a day, exceeding the AAP recommendations. In response to these discoveries and cultural trends, some scholars have made compelling cases to adapt the AAP guidelines for infants. A helpful model for developing infant digital media use guidelines for families may be the harm reduction approach. The intent of this review is to suggest adaptations to the AAP guidelines for infant media engagement using a harm reduction framework. This review describes the challenge of restrictive guidelines, briefly summarizes the harm reduction approach, provides a review of risks and benefits associated with infant media use in each developmental domain (physical, cognitive, and socioemotional), summarizes correlates of infant screen media use, and examines intervention strategies for reducing screen time. The paper concludes with examples of possible adaptations to current AAP infant media use recommendations using harm reduction and bioecological frameworks.

Social learning from media: The need for a culturally diachronic developmental psychology

Since the proliferation of television sets into households began over half a century ago there has been widespread interest in the impact that viewing has on young children's development. Such interest has grown with the increasing availability of smart phones and tablets. In this review we examine the literature documenting human social learning and how this learning is impacted when the instructing agent appears on a screen instead of face-to-face. We then explore the shifting nature of screen-based media, with a focus on the increasingly socio-normative manner information is portrayed. We discuss how the changing nature of screen technology might be altering how children interpret what they see, and raise the possibility that this may render prevailing evidence as historical documentation, rather than setting out established developmental milestones that transcend the period in which they were documented. We contend that recognizing the significance of historically changing contexts in developmental psychology is timely when the COVID-19 climate is pushing data collection on-line for many labs, often using tasks that were developed primarily for face-to-face contexts.

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.

Four-Year-Old's Online Versus Face-to-Face Word Learning via eBooks

Developmental research typically relies on face-to-face testing at laboratories, childcare centers, museums or playgroups. Current social distancing measures have led to a halt in research. Although face-to-face interaction is considered essential for research involving young children, current technology provides viable alternatives. This paper introduces an accessible, replicable and easy to follow method to conduct online developmental research with young children employing a word-learning task as an exemplar, including a detailed workflow and step-by-step guide to using easily accessible programs and platforms. Four-year-old children's (N = 56) performance on a word-learning task delivered online vs. face-to-face is provided as a method validation. Children's performance on the word-learning task was predominantly consistent across delivery modes, with only slight variation in performance between modes. The implications of these similar results across face-to-face and online methods are discussed alongside avenues for further research. Importantly, this paper presents an emerging methodological approach for the online administration of developmental science both within and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic, adding a new tool to current and future developmental scientist's toolkits.

Toddler word learning from contingent screens with and without human presence

While previous studies have documented that toddlers learn less well from passive screens than from live interaction, the rise of interactive, digital screen media opens new perspectives, since some work has shown that toddlers can learn similarly well from a human present via video chat as from live exposure. The present study aimed to disentangle the role of human presence from other aspects of social interactions on learning advantages in contingent screen settings. We assessed 16-month-old toddlers' fast mapping of novel words from screen in three conditions: in-person, video chat, and virtual agent. All conditions built on the same controlled and scripted interaction. In the in-person condition, toddlers learned two novel word-object associations from an experimenter present in the same room and reacting contingently to infants' gaze direction. In the video chat condition, the toddler saw the experimenter in real time on screen, while the experimenter only had access to the toddler's real-time gaze position as captured by an eyetracker. This setup allowed contingent reactivity to the toddler's gaze while controlling for any cues beyond these instructions. The virtual agent condition was programmed to follow the infant's gaze, to smile, and to name the object with the same parameters as the experimenter in the other conditions. After the learning phase, all toddlers were tested on their word recognition in a looking-while-listening paradigm. Comparisons against chance revealed that toddlers showed above-chance word learning in the in-person group only. Toddlers in the virtual agent group showed significantly worse performance than those in the in-person group, while performance in the video chat group overlapped with the other two groups. These results confirm that in-person interaction leads to best learning outcomes even in the absence of rich social cues. They also elucidate that contingency is not sufficient either, and that in order for toddlers to learn from interactive digital media, more cues to social agency are required.

Touchscreens for Whom? Working Memory and Age Moderate the Impact of Contingency on Toddlers' Transfer From Video

Toddlers exhibit poor transfer between video and real-world contexts. Contingently responsive video such as that found in touchscreen apps appears to assist transfer for some toddlers but not others. This study investigated the extent to which toddlers' working memory moderates the impact of contingency on toddler's transfer of learning from video. Toddlers (24–36 months; N = 134) watched a hiding event on either (a) contingent video that advanced only after touch input or (b) non-contingent video that proceeded automatically. Toddlers then searched for a corresponding object on a felt board. Additionally, toddlers' working memory (WM) was assessed. Findings indicate WM and age moderated the impact of contingency on transfer: Contingency decreased transfer in younger children while increasing transfer among older children. However, this was only true for children with relatively low WM. Contingency had little impact on transfer among children with relatively high WM, regardless of age. Results from this study suggest that WM is one specific moderator that predicts whether toddlers are likely to learn from contingent vs. non-contingent video, yet WM does not operate in isolation. Together, these findings underscore the importance of considering multiple child characteristics when identifying the optimal conditions for toddlers' learning from symbolic media.

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.

Word learning from a tablet app: Toddlers perform better in a passive context

In recent years, the popularity of tablets has skyrocketed and there has been an explosive growth in apps designed for children. Howhever, many of these apps are released without tests for their effectiveness. This is worrying given that the factors influencing children's learning from touchscreen devices need to be examined in detail. In particular, it has been suggested that children learn less from passive video viewing relative to equivalent live interaction, which would have implications for learning from such digital tools. However, this so-called video deficit may be reduced by allowing children greater influence over their learning environment. Across two touchscreen-based experiments, we examined whether 2- to 4-year-olds benefit from actively choosing what to learn more about in a digital word learning task. We designed a tablet study in which "active" participants were allowed to choose which objects they were taught the label of, while yoked "passive" participants were presented with the objects chosen by their active peers. We then examined recognition of the learned associations across different tasks. In Experiment 1, children in the passive condition outperformed those in the active condition (n = 130). While Experiment 2 replicated these findings in a new group of Malay-speaking children (n = 32), there were no differences in children's learning or recognition of the novel word-object associations using a more implicit looking time measure. These results suggest that there may be performance costs associated with active tasks designed as in the current study, and at the very least, there may not always be systematic benefits associated with active learning in touchscreen-based word learning tasks. The current studies add to the evidence that educational apps need to be evaluated before release: While children might benefit from interactive apps under certain conditions, task design and requirements need to consider factors that may detract from successful performance.

The Relationships between Screen Use and Health Indicators among Infants, Toddlers, and Preschoolers: A Meta-Analysis and Systematic Review

Evidence suggests that excessive screen time in early childhood is related to children's physical and mental health. This study aimed to review the relationships between screen media use and several health indicators in infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. A systematic search was conducted by two independent reviewers on PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Cochrane Library to identify the eligible studies, with an end date of 13 August 2019. Included studies (published in English) were peer-reviewed and met the determinate population (children aged 0-7 years with screen media exposure and related health outcomes). The AHRQ, NOS, and the Cochrane Handbook were used to evaluate the cross-sectional study, cohort study, and RCT, respectively. A meta-analysis and narrative syntheses were employed separately. Eighty studies (23 studies for meta-analysis) met the inclusion criteria for the systematic review. Strong evidence of the meta-analysis suggested that excessive screen time was associated with overweight/obesity and shorter sleep duration among toddlers and preschoolers. Excessive screen use was associated with various health indicators in physical, behavioral, and psychosocial aspects. Better-quality research on newer media devices, on various kinds of contents in young children, and on dose-response relationships between excessive screen use and health indicators are needed to update recommendations of screen use.

Preschoolers Benefit Equally From Video Chat, Pseudo-Contingent Video, and Live Book Reading: Implications for Storytime During the Coronavirus Pandemic and Beyond

During the unprecedented coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis, virtual education activities have become more prevalent than ever. One activity that many families have incorporated into their routines while at home is virtual storytime, with teachers, grandparents, and other remote adults reading books to children over video chat. The current study asks how dialogic reading over video chat compares to more traditional forms of book reading in promoting story comprehension and vocabulary learning. Fifty-eight 4-year-olds (M age = 52.7, SD = 4.04, 31 girls) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions (Video chat, Live, and Prerecorded). Across conditions, children were read the same narrative storybook by a female experimenter who used the same 10 scripted dialogic reading prompts during book reading. In the Video chat (n = 21) and Live conditions (n = 18), the experimenter gave the scripted prompts and interacted naturally and contingently, responding in a timely, relevant manner to children's behaviors. In the Prerecorded condition (n = 19), children viewed a video of an experimenter reading the book. The Prerecorded condition was pseudo-contingent; the reader posed questions and paused for a set period of time as if to wait for a child's response. After reading, children completed measures of vocabulary and comprehension. Results revealed no differences between conditions across six different outcome measures, suggesting that children comprehended and learned from the story similarly across book formats. Further, children in the three experimental conditions scored significantly higher on measures than children in a fourth condition (control) who had never read the book, confirming that children learned from the three different book formats. However, children were more responsive to the prompts in the Live and Video chat conditions than the Prerecorded condition, suggesting that children recognized that these interactions were contingent with their responses, a feature that was lacking in the Prerecorded condition. Results indicate that children can comprehend books over video chat, suggesting that this technology is a viable option for reading to children, especially during the current pandemic.

The social brain of language: grounding second language learning in social interaction

For centuries, adults may have relied on pedagogies that promote rote memory for the learning of foreign languages through word associations and grammar rules. This contrasts sharply with child language learning which unfolds in socially interactive contexts. In this paper, we advocate an approach to study the social brain of language by grounding second language learning in social interaction. Evidence has accumulated from research in child language, education, and cognitive science pointing to the efficacy and significance of social learning. Work from several recent L2 studies also suggests positive brain changes along with enhanced behavioral outcomes as a result of social learning. Here we provide a blueprint for the brain network underlying social L2 learning, enabling the integration of neurocognitive bases with social cognition of second language while combining theories of language and memory with practical implications for the learning and teaching of a new language in adulthood.

Association of Parental and Contextual Stressors With Child Screen Exposure and Child Screen Exposure Combined With Feeding

IMPORTANCE

Parents may use screen exposure or screen exposure combined with feeding for infants and toddlers to alleviate their own stress.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the association of individual and contextual stressors with child screen exposure (CSE) and CSE combined with feeding (CSE+F) in children aged 7 to 18 months as measured by parent-reported use and variation in quantity of CSE and CSE+F.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS

This cross-sectional, population-based study drew parent-child participants from TARGet Kids, a network of primary health care research settings throughout Toronto, Ontario, Canada, between November 1, 2011, and July 31, 2018. The included children were aged 7 to 18 months. Exclusion criteria were health conditions affecting growth, acute conditions, chronic conditions, severe developmental delay, and families who were unable to communicate in the English language. Data were analyzed from April 1, 2019, to July 31, 2019.

EXPOSURES

Parenting stress, child age, child negative affectivity, family living arrangements, and family income were assessed with parent-completed questionnaires.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES

The primary outcome was CSE and the variation in CSE, which represented the amount of background and engaged use of screens (television, videos or DVDs, video games, computers, and mobile devices) in a typical week. The secondary outcome was CSE+F, which represented the frequency of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack consumption during screen exposure in a typical week. Both CSE and CSE+F were assessed with the parent-completed Nutrition and Health Questionnaire; Infant Behavior Questionnaire, Revised Very Short; and Parenting Stress Index, Short Form.

RESULTS

The final sample size was 1085 children for the analysis of CSE and 1083 children for the analysis of CSE+F. Among 914 respondents, the children's mean (SD) age was 11.6 (2.3) months, and 478 (52.3%) were male. Among 910 respondents, 839 (92.2%) were mothers, with a mean (SD) age among 873 respondents of 34.4 (4.2) years. In a typical week, 581 of 779 children (74.6%) were reported to have any CSE, and 321 of 874 children (36.7%) had some CSE+F. Higher parenting stress levels (odds ratio [OR], 1.01; 95% CI, 1.00-1.02; P = .04) and older child age (OR, 1.43; 95% CI, 1.01-2.03; P = .04) were associated with CSE. Higher parenting stress levels (incidence rate [IR], 1.00; 95% CI, 1.00-1.01; P = .002) and lower household income (IR, 1.26; 95% CI, 1.10-1.45; P = .01) were associated with increased CSE. Older child age (OR, 1.79; 95% CI, 1.35-2.38; P < .001) and lower household income (OR, 2.54; 95% CI, 1.72-3.74; P < .001) were associated with CSE+F. Lower household income (IR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.03-1.42; P = .02) was associated with increased CSE+F.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE

This study found that parenting stress, income, and child age were associated with CSE, and child age and household income were associated with CSE+F. Given these findings, interventions to improve parental coping mechanisms may decrease child screen exposure.

Growing up in the digital age: Early learning and family media ecology

Media is so pervasive that it should no longer be considered a nuisance variable that could affect development but rather, a fundamental part of the context in which development occurs. Despite the rapid growth in access to digital media, there is a scarcity of research examining changes in the family media ecology and the subsequent effects of early media exposure on socio-cognitive development. Early research erroneously focused on the absolute amount of exposure by the child. Current research now considers the entire household, including both intentional exposure to child-directed content and unintended exposure to background media sources. Such research demonstrates that young children can and do learn from well-designed media particularly when they engage with others during digital play.

When Representation Becomes Reality: Interactive Digital Media and Symbolic Development

One challenge of using an interesting object such as a scale model as a symbol for something else is children's deep interest in the object itself. Attending to the model (the symbol) as a toy, children do not use information about where in the model a tiny dog is hiding to mentally represent where a larger dog is hiding in the full-sized room (the referent). Young children use pictures in this way because they are relatively uninteresting as objects. Today, interactive images on touchscreens function as virtual objects on which to act and which respond to the user's actions. In this chapter, we examine how interactive symbolic media (e.g., touchscreens, video chat, augmented reality) might affect children's symbolic development and the way that psychologists think about representational objects. Young children's learning about and from interactive media may depend upon adults scaffolding children's use of these new cultural tools.

Subtle temporal delays of mothers' responses affect imitation learning in children: Mother-child interaction study

The relationship between temporal contiguity of mothers' teaching behaviors and children's imitation learning was investigated. Participants (2-year-old children) observed their mothers' demonstration of using novel toys over a double television system under live and delayed conditions. The dyads normally interacted in the live condition, whereas they interacted with a 1-s time delay inserted between the children's actions and mothers' responses in the delayed condition. Then, the children were tested with identical toys. Results indicated that children's smiling responses and imitation performances were significantly decreased in the delayed condition compared with the live condition, although mothers' teaching approach did not differ between conditions. These results suggest that a subtle temporal delay in mothers' responses could affect young children's imitation learning.

Let's Chat: On-Screen Social Responsiveness Is Not Sufficient to Support Toddlers' Word Learning From Video

Joint engagement with a speaker is one cue children may use to establish that an interaction is relevant to them and worthy of attention. People on pre-recorded video cannot engage contingently with a viewer in shared experiences, possibly leading to deficits in learning from video relative to learning from responsive face-to-face encounters. One hundred and thirty two toddlers (24 and 30 months old) were offered referential social cues disambiguating a novel word's meaning in one of four conditions: responsive live (a speaker was present and engaged with children); unresponsive video (a speaker on video looked at the camera and smiled at scripted times); unresponsive live (although present, the speaker behaved as she did on the unresponsive video), and responsive video (a speaker on closed-circuit video engaged with children, as in video chat). Children of both ages reliably learned the word in the responsive live condition, and older children (30 months) learned in the unresponsive live condition. Neither group learned in the responsive or unresponsive video conditions. The results show that the addition of communicative social cues to the video presentation via video chat was not sufficient to support learning in this case. Rather, toddlers' transfer and generalization of words presented on video chat may depend on other contextual factors, such as co-viewers who scaffold their learning. Live, responsive video as implemented in this and prior studies is compared, with implications for the use of video chat via the Internet with young children.

Two are better than one: Infant language learning from video improves in the presence of peers

Studies show that young children learn new phonemes and words from humans significantly better than from machines. However, it is not clear why learning from video is ineffective or what might be done to improve learning from a screen. The present study, conducted with 9-month-old infants, utilized a manipulation-touch screen video-which allowed infants to control presentations of foreign-language video clips. We tested the hypothesis that infant learning from a screen would be enhanced in the presence of a peer, as opposed to learning alone. Brain measures of phonetic learning and detailed analyses of interaction during learning confirm the hypothesis that social partners enhance learning, even from screens.

How self-generated labelling shapes transfer of learning during early childhood: The role of individual differences

Multiple factors influence imitation during toddlerhood, including task complexity, social contingency, and individual differences. We conducted a secondary data analysis of individual differences in self-generated labelling using data collected from a complex puzzle imitation task with 355 2- to 3-year-olds. This analysis indicated that toddlers' ability to label the completed puzzle (fish or boat) was associated with better imitation performance. Labelling occurs during social interactions; therefore, our second analysis tested how labelling differed as a function of the level of social scaffolding in each condition. This analysis revealed that self-generated labelling was lower when the social demonstrator was removed and the task was presented on a touchscreen. This study is one of the first to examine self-generated labelling during a complex imitation task in toddlers and increases our understanding of the complexity of memory processing needed for imitation learning. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Toddlers exhibit a transfer of learning deficit from 2D media, including books, TV, and tablets. Self-generated labelling enhances children's learning, through attentional and cognitive mechanisms. Children are sensitive to reduced social cues in screen media contributing to the transfer deficit. What does this study add? Self-generated labelling is associated with better goal imitation performance. Self-generated labelling occurs more frequently under social conditions.

Co-viewing supports toddlers' word learning from contingent and noncontingent video

Social cues are one way young children determine that a situation is pedagogical in nature-containing information to be learned and generalized. However, some social cues (e.g., contingent gaze and responsiveness) are missing from prerecorded video, a potential reason why toddlers' language learning from video can be inefficient compared with their learning directly from a person. This study explored two methods for supporting children's word learning from video by adding social-communicative cues. A sample of 88 30-month-olds began their participation with a video training phase. In one manipulation, an on-screen actress responded contingently to children through a live video feed (similar to Skype or FaceTime "video chat") or appeared in a prerecorded demonstration. In the other manipulation, parents either modeled responsiveness to the actress's on-screen bids for participation or sat out of their children's view. Children then viewed a labeling demonstration on video, and their knowledge of the label was tested with three-dimensional objects. Results indicated that both on-screen contingency and parent modeling increased children's engagement with the actress during training. However, only parent modeling increased children's subsequent word learning, perhaps by revealing the symbolic (representational) intentions underlying this video. This study highlights the importance of adult co-viewing in helping toddlers to interpret communicative cues from video.