Beyond Screens: Digital Technology and Child Development

Conversations around children and screen time have become common, but as technologies change, the discussions around them must evolve beyond traditional screen-time alone. Today, digital technology—digital devices such as computers or tablets, as well as products meant to be consumed on these devices, like apps and games—touches almost every aspect of children’s lives and creates new challenges for parents, caregivers, and educators. Despite inequalities in access to and use of technology, as well as limited information regarding the effects of technology on early childhood development, it is still essential that we utilize what information is currently available to help adults make informed decisions when it comes to young children’s use of digital technologyThat is why the Bay Area Discovery Museum conducted a literature review and created a resource for parents and caregivers focusing on 2- to 12-year-olds’ interactions with the following: (1) digital gaming; (2) coding; (3) augmented reality/virtual reality; (4) digital fabrication; and (5) social robots and conversational agents. A unique contribution to the creation of these resources is the use of BADM’s CREATE Framework, a research-backed guide to design and evaluate the quality of learning environments for developing children’s creative problem-solving skills. There are six CREATE components: (1) Child-directed; (2) Risk-friendly; (3) Exploratory; (4) Active; (5) Time for imagination; and (6) Exchange of ideas. Ultimately, we believe that the CREATE components can help to identify ways digital technology can be used as a part of a positive learning environment for young children.