Psychological Development and Education ›› 2020, Vol. 36 ›› Issue (4): 502-512.doi: 10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2020.04.14

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Children in the Digital Age: Touchscreen and Child Development

GAO Chunying1, WANG Fuxing1, TONG Yu1, LI Hui2   

  1. 1. School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079;
    2. School of Education, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079
  • Published:2020-07-21

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Abstract: Children are increasingly exposed to touchscreen devices, such as iPad and smartphones in their early life. This article reviewed studies regarding the touchscreen use and children’s development. It was found that touchscreen devices had the feature of interactive, immediate feedback, progressive and portable. Using touchscreen devices could promote children’s learning in STEM (dcompare with baseline=1.06, dcompare with other methods=0.30) and vocabulary (dcompare with baseline=0.51, dcompare with other methods=0.47). Moreover, children could transfer what they had learned on touchscreen to other situations (d=0.78). Using touchscreen device had positive effect on children’s executive function and parent-child relationship, but its influences on children’s fine movement skills is still mixed. Touchscreen device could also be used as a new measurement instrument or interventions in other areas, and there are challenges in popularizing. Future studies might focus on the touchscreen device’s characteristics and learning outcomes among children of different age, and extend these results in real-world situations.

Key words: touchscreen, child development, learning, interactivity

CLC Number: 

  • B844
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