The Influence Of Children's Engagement In Digital Activities On Their Development: A Case Study On Family Practices And Perceptions

This decade is remarkable because of the fast-paced evolution in the development and usage of technology.Even though,technologies have become a part of our society,arguments abound on its influence on human existence.Hence,studies on children's use of technologies have increased though not at the same pace as the production of these devices and the accompanying programs and applications aimed specifically at children.Therefore,this study aims to focus on the newest additions to the technologies which are the smart phones and tablet devices.This is because recent statistics have shown that these devices are commonly owned by American children,who are aged eight years and below.Furthermore,it had been revealed that even children under the age of five have become heavy users of these devices.Hence,this dissertation investigated the influence of digital activities on children between the age range of four to seven from the perspectives of family practices and perceptions.This study revealed the children's preferences for interactive or non-interactive digital activities.It was a mixed method designed study that used both the qualitative and quantitative data collection method.Which generated data from participants who included 82 parents and 8 children from the American military community resident in Rheinland-Pfalz,Germany.The social constructivist theory guided the study and analysis of the data as social interactions were discovered as central in the use of and learning processes of children on these devices.This research reveals that,children aged four to seven own their personal tablets and smartphones.Furthermore,it reveals that the main factors of the digital activities that influence the development of children in this study were screen time,content,and contact.It was revealed that,the amount of time spent on the devices when well-regulated often led to positive outcomes like increased verbal abilities and creativity while overindulgence led to obsession,aggressive and anti-social behavior.It was also noted that older siblings were the main determinants of the digital environments in the home.This finding is different from previous findings which revealed that parents dictated the digital environments in their homes.The four and five-year olds were revealed to prefer non-interactive digital activities to interactive digital activities.While the six and seven-year olds were revealed to like both options.Previous studies have revealed that non-interactive digital activities have a negative impact on children's physical development as they are just passive consumers of the content.Children do not use their sensory motor skills in non-interactive activities like they do in interactive games and this was suggested to lead to muscle weakness.From the positive angle,this study revealed that non-interactive digital activities like educational videos guided the children in learning about socio-emotional skills that included cultural awareness,social skills and etiquette.Using Leuven's scale of engagement,all the observed children revealed high to extremely high engagement patterns in all the digital activities that they carried out.Multitasking with maximum concentration on two or more activities was also revealed to be a trend among the studied children.It was also discovered that,for educational purposes,parents of children in the age range studied still prefer traditional print style books to digital devices.Nevertheless,they acknowledge that they expect their children to learn from the contents while using tablets and smartphones and were impressed and satisfied with the learning process especially with regards to verbal and social skills improvement.Through this research,parents revealed that tablets and smartphones are here to stay so,they have made them available to their children.They also revealed that obsession with digital devices was a problem that they have noticed with their children.In addition,parents were concerned with protecting their children from inappropriate content by trying to stay ahead in terms of activities that their children carry out online.Finally,it was discovered that children preferred to stay on their devices rather than go outdoors for routine activities but,were willing to give up the devices for novel activities.This implies that parents need to consciously work out a planned and detailed schedule with a limited amount of time on the devices.By doing this,they will teach their children how to incorporate physical exercises,homework and more for a balance,so that children will get accustomed to this from the foundation.Findings from this study are expected to be useful to researchers on children's development in the tech era,children,parents,care givers,early childhood educators,curriculum developers,technology developers and producers,pediatricians,psychologists,policy makers and anyone involved or interested in children as the study was focused on construction of meaning based on real life practices and experiences.