Technology’s Impact on Language Development
an article review
Children in developed countries are growing up in an increasingly diverse and technological savvy environment, as time progresses and devices become more advanced and immersive.
As parents, caregivers, or professionals working with children on a daily basis, we know little about the impacts of daily iPhone, iPad, or computer-use on children’s language and literacy development; however, a case study by Harrison and McTavish (2018) outlined a few factors technology can potentially bring to the table, when considering a child’s social, language, and literacy development.
Social Implications
Devices such as iPhones, iPads, or computer games (iDevices) give children an opportunity to engage with their own social identity, through pictures and videos taken of themselves, as well as engage with people in their immediate environment.
In an article by Harrison and McTavish (2018), the authors investigated how iDevices play a role in various levels of development at the toddler age, by observing two children and their interactions while using these devices. This allows for social interaction within their community in the context of cultural norms and shared values.
In the article, a child aged 22 months (Ally) independently navigated her mother’s iPhone to find desired ibooks, videos, games, or pictures. She was constantly supervised by her mother who would give her instructions or play along beside her while using the device.
Ally often initiated interactions with family members while looking at pictures or videos. One interesting point which arose was the reason for supervision being that of preventing Ally from messaging someone inadvertently or deleting her mother’s contacts.
The question then arises of what different behaviors may result if they didn’t have this vested interest in Ally’s use of the device; would Ally be spending this much time interacting with them while on the device? And if not, how might the results contrast to what the authors observed, in terms of social interactions?
In contrast to the ever-so-popular stereotype that children will isolate themselves and become anti-social due to over-use of technology, this article highlights ways in which a child may actually benefit socially from the use of technology.
Language Development
Another aspect of development which may be impacted by iDevices includes language, whether monolingual, or bilingual. In the instance of bilingual families, iDevices may present more opportunities for learning second languages in the context of videos and interactive games. In the article, the child learns new English words during shared stories on her device, while her mother scaffolds.
The beneficial impacts involved in technology and language development can involve bilingual language learning, opportunities social interaction and shared experiences, new vocabulary exposure, as well as literacy components with text-picture shared story book readings and games.
During shared experiences, the caregivers has an opportunity to model aspects of semantics and syntax, by having the child name items based on verbal stimuli related to the picture scenes, scaffolding during shared stories, and giving verbal directions to identify items the child knows with embedded adjectives such as “big/small.”
Literacy
Children now have access to novel forms of literacy which are not confined to written text; they may can include symbolic, technological, and multimodal ways of representation that combine music, printed text, visual images, animation and sound.
Children may also benefit from iDevices by seeing new words and symbols during their interactions with these devices. Ally was able to recognize and use multiple symbols such as the YouTube icon and the “play” button on video screens. She also learned the English alphabet through interactive videos with music and symbols embedded within.
One important piece of the puzzle of how a child benefits from continuous exposure to these new technologies, may be parent-child interaction. Common sense would tell us that interacting with children while they play is a key ingredient to their social and language development.
But what key outcomes arise if this interaction is removed, and how do these relate to the three aspects outlines above? The assumption that technology has negative impacts on children’s social interaction comes from the very real possibility that when they are not engaged or sharing the experience with an adult or peer on a continuous basis, it may have a negative impact on their social or pragmatic language skills.
In the case of Ally, her mother was very present and engaged throughout their interactions with iDevices. Future research is needed to perform more in-depth investigations of duration and types of screen-time, and to determine the relationship between parent-child-device interaction and overall language, literacy, and social skill development.
References
Harrison, E. & McTavish, M. (2018). ‘i’Babies: Infants’ and toddlers’ emergent language and literacy in a digital culture of iDevices. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 18(2), 163-188. doi:10.1177/1468798416653175