Young children and tablets: the views of parents and teachers

ABSTRACT

Touch screen tablets are now widely available and due to the increasing use of these technologies in homes and early years centres, it is important to consider parent and teacher views about their use. This paper reports on an interview study which explored the perspectives of four parents of children aged 20–36 months and their two teachers in one early learning centre in the north of England. Key findings were that parents and teachers had a positive perspective on young children’s use of tablets and viewed them as educationally valuable. They expressed that they did not wish children to be left behind in learning about new technologies and emphasized having a ‘balanced’ approach to tablets. However, there were also concerns voiced over the potential overuse and misuse of tablets at home suggesting more guidance for parents is needed to support young children’s experiences with tablets.

KEYWORDS:

• Parents
• teachers
• iPads
• touch screen tablets
• young children

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 We have used a fictitious name in referring to the setting to comply with ethical guidelines.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michelle M. Neumann

Michelle Neumann is a researcher and lecturer at Griffith University, Australia. Michelle’s research interests are in early childhood education particularly in the fields of emergent literacy, parent–child interactions, home environment, and the use of touch screen tablets to foster early learning.

Guy Merchant

Guy Merchant is Professor of Literacy and Education and has an international reputation for his research in digital literacy. He is interested in the inter-relations between children and young people, new technology and literacy. Guy is a founding editor of the Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, and a member of the editorial board of Literacy.

Cathy Burnett

Cathy Burnett is Professor of Literacy and Education at Sheffield Institute of Education, Sheffield Hallam University, where she leads the Language and Literacy Research Group. She is President Elect for the United Kingdom Literacy Association.