Poster #102 - Do Digital Media Tools Miss Opportunities to Promote Preschoolers' Language and Literacy Outcomes?

• In Event: Poster Session 10

Abstract

In addition to analog home literacy activities (e.g., reading books), digital educational tools have become an important aspect of the home learning environment (Turco et al., 2022). Although there is established literature on how home literacy activities promote children’s skills and learning, there is no consensus on how digital media use relates to children’s outcomes. Some researchers report that digital media use might decrease interactions between children and caregivers, thus reducing children’s opportunities for learning (e.g., Dore et al., 2020). On the other hand, digital tools include many interactive features that could promote learning even without much adult support. A number of studies show that digital media can help children to develop early literacy, math, and language skills specifically (e.g., Arnold et al., 2021; Neumann, 2018).
The current study aimed to understand how families support children’s use of digital learning tools relative to analog activities. Associations between digital and analog aspects of the home learning environment were also examined in relation to children’s early literacy and language skills. Families (N = 268) reported that children spent an average of 2.7 hours (SD=2.1) with digital devices during a typical weekday and 3.8 hours (SD= 2.29) during a day on a typical weekend, and they engage in digital media tools independently more than using it with an adult (i.e., co-use). Parents who have higher education reported that their children use digital media less than others both independently and with an adult (r=-.16, r=-.21; respectively). The most frequent digital activities involved children (Mage=54.96 months, SD= 7.07) watching educational and entertainment content (e.g., YouTube videos on a tablet) either independently or together with their parents. Among the digital tools that required more active participation, children played with letter or word game apps most often and used science and math games least often. Across activities, children tended to use digital tools by themselves more often than they used them with an adult (See Table 1). Parents also reported engaging in many analog literacy activities with their children, including reading books and matching written words with pictures.
Digital media use was averaged across methods of use (independent versus use with an adult). Correlations suggested that children’s digital media use was not associated with their learning outcomes including listening comprehension, letter name knowledge, expressive language, and math. However, the analog home literacy activities children engaged in were significantly associated with children’s receptive letter name knowledge (r=.31) and expressive language (r=.25) (See Table 2). One possible explanation is that even though children engaged in educational digital media content, independent use was more common than use with an adult, which might have made these tools less effective for learning (Dore & Zimmerman, 2020; Kang, 2018). We do not know how parents interacted with their children when they engaged in educational content together or how they supported their child’s learning. Future work should examine the nature of digital media co-use to understand how parents instruct their children as well as families’ knowledge of high-quality digital media tools (i.e., apps).

Authors

• Burcu H. Tatar, Michigan State University
  Presenting Author

• Lori E Skibbe, Michigan State University

• Hope K Gerde, Michigan State University