The Digital Debate: Should Young Children Use Reading Apps?

Photo by Petras Gagilas

This story was originally published on December 7, 2014 at the Stony Brook Independent. 

Before most toddlers can turn a page, their little fingers can already navigate the touchscreen of an iPad, which leaves experts wondering: Are literacy apps actually effective?

Though research has shown that 49 percent of middle-income parents have downloaded educational apps for their children, the use of these apps on mobile devices has tripled for children under two since 2011. There is little research to show what kind of effects these apps are having on learning and literacy.

“You have to always prioritize because time is ticking and that’s when their neurology is forming,” said Frances Judd, a former developer of educational apps for children at Mrs. Judd’s Games. She added that she urges parents to consider, “What’s important during those early years?”

Experts can’t pinpoint an exact time in a child’s life when literacy begins, but they can agree that the first three years of a child’s life are the most important for their development of language and reading skills.

“The motivation for reading and writing comes from a desire to communicate,” Dona Matthews, who holds a doctorate in developmental psychology, said.

Matthews said that she sees this sort of scenario often: A mother, with her eyes and fingers glued to a smartphone, and a rambunctious two-year-old son are sitting in Starbucks. In order to quiet the child, she takes the iPad out of her purse, hands it to him and tells him to be quiet.

“So while some of the skills appear to be taught by the devices, the research is suggesting that kids learn it way more effectively when someone is talking to them about it,” she said.

She clarified that some apps, including one that allows children to connect dots to draw letters, can be used as an effective supplement to literacy education.

“I want to emphasize the word supplement rather than replacement,” she said.  “For too many parents, what I’ve seen is when its time to read a book or a story, the parent hands the kid an iPad and I hate that. This machine should not be reading that story to your child. That’s your job.”

Judd said that reading with a parent is still the best way for a child to learn literacy, but that story-teller apps provide a unique tool to help with that process. “You want that whole wrap-around literacy experience,” she said. “I think that the place apps have are literacy experiences that are engaging, where they can see and hear text and that they can be creative. That’s very empowering, very important.”

For many mothers and experts, like Susan Cusack, an associate professor in the educational technology department at Lesley University, it’s not an either-or issue.

“Kids today are growing up in a technology based society whether we like it or not,” she said. “You want to be able to have kids to explore their creativity on a tablet and on a piece of paper.”

Kathleen de Riesthal, a mother of three, said “it’s scary that even at the age of one, for some reason this type of interface is made for little guys.”

Her three-and-a-half year old son who uses educational apps like “Endless ABC” and “Endless Writer” became so attached to using the iPad that she limited his usage to an hour. He would wake up in the morning and ask “Is it 7 p.m. yet?” and then stand to watch the clock on the oven to eagerly await his time with the iPad.

In order to combat the sometimes addictive nature of iPads, de Riesthal said, “You just control it. You say no. And they cry, but it’s fine and they get over it.” She looks for the educational value in apps, only allowing screen time in moderation, like a parent would need to do with any other toy.

“I’ve seen vocabulary building,” she said. Apps like Endless ABC work with sounds that letters make, words and definitions of words. “They’re being exposed to words they may not have necessarily seen otherwise.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend any use of technology under the age of two. De Riesthal said that she doesn’t use her iPad with her 22-month old twins because they don’t have the attention span.

But some mothers reject using educational apps all together.

Donella D’Angelo, a young stay-at-home mom from Coram, New York, doesn’t let her thirteen-month old daughter have any screen access. “It’s pretty unproductive and idle,” she said. Instead, D’Angelo uses books and toys to engage her daughter and help her develop. “The best way to do that is interact with things that actually exist,” she said.

The debate of using technology with children has been around since the invention of the television. But with the hundreds of literacy based childhood apps available and the expansion of mobile devices, this question won’t disappear. At the end of the day, it’s up to the parents to decide how they will let their children interact and engage with mobile devices and literacy apps.

With reading apps for children, it’s all about application.