Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Polinsky, Naomi
• Flynn, Rachel
• Uttal, David H.
• Shawcroft, Jane
• Fitzgerald, Jacklynn
• Starks, Allison
• Zosh, Jennifer
• Jing, Mengguo

Titel

How Children's App Play Could Facilitate Spatial Skill Development

Ist Teil von

• Translational issues in psychological science, 2023-09, Vol.9 (3), p.228-237

Ort / Verlag

Washingon: Educational Publishing Foundation

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

APA PsycARTICLES

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This conceptual article offers an analysis of how children's play with digital media, including apps and touchscreen devices, may influence their learning and development of spatial skills. Many of children's formative spatial experiences occur during their play, and a well-established body of research demonstrates the benefits of video and computer games for older children's and adults' spatial skills. Building on this prior work, the current article suggests that app play could benefit young children's spatial skills as well. Our analysis focuses on the unique digital features of children's apps. Children's interactions with these features can reveal spatial information that would be difficult or impossible for children to see during their experiences in the real world. Consequently, app play could expand the types of spatial information children can view. We suggest based on research from developmental psychology that viewing novel spatial information could have benefits for children's spatial skill development. We provide examples of these digital features in publicly available, popular children's apps. Finally, we discuss how this research can be used to raise awareness among parents and educators of the spatial learning opportunities in children's app play. What is the significance of this article for the general public?This article addresses a potential benefit of touchscreen play for providing children with spatial learning opportunities. We present research and provide examples of how spatial skill development may occur through children's play with publicly available apps that can be downloaded by parents and educators. Since spatial skills are learned through play and support children's science, technology, engineering, and mathematics learning, it is imperative that children have access to spatial learning opportunities. We make the case that touchscreen play may offer those.