Run away or play? Parents need evidence-based recommendations to create playful and engaging video chat interactions with their children

• In Event: Young Children and Digital “Symbols”: A Socio-contextual Lens

Abstract

Many families report moderate video chat usage as an exception to their goals for otherwise limited time for their children with digital media (McClure, Chentsova-Dutton, Barr, Holochwost, & Parrott, 2015). Adult co-viewers significantly impact children’s social interactions with people on video chat (McClure, Chentsova-Dutton, Holochwost, Parrott, & Barr, 2018); however, most studies examine children video chatting alone without support from a co-viewer. Researchers typically instruct parents not to assist or explain so that children’s learning can be attributed to the on-screen partner (Myers, LeWitt, Gallo, & Maselli, 2017; Roseberry, Hirsh-Pasek, & Golinkoff, 2014). This methodology does not reflect young children’s naturalistic experiences with video chat, which are important to investigate given that families are introducing video chat at younger ages than in past years (Tarasuik & Kaufman, 2017).

In the present study, we assessed the ways that parents scaffold their children during semi-naturalistic video chat interactions. Authors from Zero to Three (Barr, McClure & Parklakian, 2018) have provided recommendations for using digital media with children (E-AIMS): Engage attention toward a learning goal; Actively Involve children; make content Meaningful; and provide a Social context for learning (Barr, McClure, & Parlakian, 2018). We investigated how parents enacted E-AIMS recommendations during playful video chat interactions with a researcher and with a remote relative. We examined how parents engaged 16 to 30-month-olds in video chat, and whether the E-AIMS strategies were effective at fostering attention and engagement in naturalistic video chat settings.

Before learning E-AIMS strategies, 62% of parents reported that their child typically paid attention to video chat for <5 minutes, and 15% reported needing to constrain the child in a high chair or seat. The most common reported child action was talking and pointing (71% of children did both), and parents reported that 50% of children frequently ran away from video chats. Observations during our playful semi-scripted video chat interaction were different: children’s most frequent actions were talking, smiling and responding to prompts, with positive affect especially evident during interactive and pretense activities (e.g., drum a bowl; “feed” a stuffed animal, sing a song) (Figure 1). Talking, smiling, and across screen references increased over subsequent sessions, p<.05, and children were engaged longer during our observed video chat sessions than parents had reported previously, p<.05. Interestingly, parents’ actions did not significantly differ between sessions before and after they learned the E-AIMS strategies (Figure 2), suggesting that differences across sessions were due to children’s responses to video chat rather than ways that parents scaffold them. Parents reported that the E-AIMS tips were helpful, easy to implement, and were effective at increasing their child’s engagement and enjoyment in video chat interactions.

Results suggest that parents may benefit from evidence-based instruction about how to involve children in video chat interactions in developmentally appropriate ways. Specifically, incorporating playful activities such as songs, props, pretense, and imitation is engaging and elicits positive affect for children. Future research should investigate the role of the video chat partner, and whether playful video chat interactions contribute to feelings of connectedness over distance.

Authors

• Lauren J. Myers, Lafayette College
  Presenting Author

• Erin McKenney, Lafayette College
  Non-Presenting Author