Babies are eager to learn from birth - the "Toddlers, Tech and Talk" project
Dr Katrina McLaughlin collaborates in a major survey of over 1000 parents and carers of 0-3 year olds across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Babies are eager to learn from birth. They soak up information from every interaction, every facial gesture, and increasingly, from every swipe of a screen. Researchers from Queen’s University Belfast have been hearing from parents as they undertake ground-breaking research into how babies and toddlers are influenced by technology as they learn to speak and interact.
The large-scale project Toddlers, Tech and Talk, led by Prof Rosie Flewitt in Manchester Metropolitan University, is an ESRC-funded, multi phase study. The project includes a survey of more than 1,000 parents and carers of 0-3 year olds, which looks at parental attitudes and use of technology with this very young age group.
Dr Katrina McLaughlin from the School of Psychology at Queen's University, says:
“The home learning environment is crucial to children’s development, we know that. But the contemporary environment, with all the digital technologies available, remains unresearched.”
This project aims to address that gap. Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, it’s an in-depth study on this topic. The project not only explores what devices are within the home but also examines when, how, where and why parents engage with technology, together with their children, and how that influences their children’s communication skills. Dr McLaughlin explains:
“There is this whole idea of serve and return, where the mother, father or caregiver gestures towards the baby and the baby will do it back to them. This is from an early age. They are born to interact.”
The research will look at what happens when technology is added alongside these interactions.
Professor Karen Winter from the School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work, at Queen’s says:
“It’s very interesting to think about the impact of digital technologies. Does it enhance language, communication and development rather than distract from it? Our youngest citizens are surrounded by technology and yet we know little to date about how they interact with it.”
The first Speak and Spell toy was launched in 1978 and tech for children has continually evolved ever since. In 2016, the Erikson Institute, Chicago, surveyed parents of children under six across the US and found that “85 per cent of parents reported that their young children use technology. Television, tablets, smartphones, and computers were the most popular.”
Levels of access to technology are similar at this side of the Atlantic with Chaudron’s report in 2018, published by the Publications Office of the European Union, showing that most children have their first experience of touchscreens before the age of two. Chaudron’s report also highlights that “parents see digital technologies as positive and unavoidable, if not necessary, but at the same time, find managing their use challenging.”
Since the pandemic, many of us have a lot of technology within our homes, but guidance for how to best use it with 0–3 year olds, if at all, is something that parents are reportedly seeking out. Prof Winter says:
“One of the important things about this project is the idea that we could disseminate guides to parents and carers and introduce them to new ideas and new ways of thinking [about technology].”
Dr McLaughlin adds:
“At the minute we see a lot of media attention around screen time and the negative impact, but I think this project will hopefully show that engagement with digital technologies can offer up a lot of rich opportunities in terms of learning and early talk development.”
With screen time being a hot topic parents may not want to be honest about how much time their children spend on screens. Dr McLaughlin says,
“We aren’t out to judge. We are out to explore meaningful engagement with digital devices for this age group. I suppose the fact that it’s anonymous helps so parents can feel they can provide honest answers.”
The researchers are keen to hear from fathers, mothers and primary carers from a range of different backgrounds. The 2021 census found that 85,100 people living in Northern Ireland don’t have English as a first language. In an effort to reach a broad range of communities the survey is offered in 12 different languages. Although to date most responses are in English.
Sabine Little from the University of Sheffield received funding from the UK Literacy Association to research the use of technology in homes with more than one language. Her 2019 paper ‘Is there an app for that?’ explores the use of games and apps for heritage language development. Heritage language families were defined in the study as families which spoke any language other than English.
The study found that parents worried about their children’s interest in technology replacing the use of books in their households. But the research found that despite parental fears, across various age ranges of children, technology co-existed with traditional book reading which meant children who used language games or apps had additional exposure to their heritage language and culture.
When speaking of the benefits of technology around second or multiple languages, Prof Winter gives the example of children from the Ukraine, who are living in Northern Ireland. Online translated classes support children’s school learning, and at home she says, “access to Ukrainian-based TV programmes through YouTube” form part of the efforts to “keep them connected with their identity, their background and their language”.
How technology, in any language, influences communication and interactions is exactly what the project hopes to understand better. As Prof Winter explains,
“One element of the research project is the anonymous survey. There is then a second part of the project which follows up with people who are willing, whereby we undertake research with them in their own homes looking at how they use digital technology with their young children.”
Parents who complete the survey can opt in for the second part of the project’s research which involves a more in depth look at how parents practically use technology with their very young children. As digital access rises so too does the need to know just how it can fit in with family life.
Parents using the digital space have already found apps that benefit their children, or maybe they draw online or play literacy games together, maybe their child enjoys scrolling through family photos on the phone. Some may limit their child’s use and some may see benefits to them having regular access. It is this diversity of experience, attitudes and practical information about technology’s uses for young children that the Toddlers, Tech and Talk researchers are seeking to know more about.