Look, My Baby Is Using an Ipad! an Analysis of Youtube Videos of Infants and Toddlers Using Tablets Juan Pablo Hourcade, Sarah L
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Look, My Baby Is Using an iPad! An Analysis of YouTube Videos of Infants and Toddlers Using Tablets Juan Pablo Hourcade, Sarah L. Mascher, David Wu and Luiza Pantoja University of Iowa 14 MacLean Hall, Iowa City, IA 52242 USA {juanpablo-hourcade,sarah-mascher,luiza-supertipantoja}@uiowa.edu, [email protected] ABSTRACT We also know that parents are providing children with We know very little about the use of computers by children access to tablets [8]. A quick search on YouTube yields under the age of three. While few children in that age range scores of videos of infants and toddlers using tablets. What used computers before the advent of smartphones and we do not know is how children are making use of these tablets, these devices have made computers much more devices, and whether they can make meaningful use of accessible to infants and toddlers. In this paper, we provide them. a window into how these children are using tablets through an analysis of relevant YouTube videos. A majority of These are important questions to ask because those early children aged 12 to 17 months in the videos in our dataset years of life are crucial to children’s development [13]. showed at least moderate ability to use the tablets. For Adding interactive computing to children’s lives at such children aged two, it was over 90 percent who displayed at young ages could lead to significant shifts in children’s least moderate ability. Our analysis also includes trends in interactions with the world around them. interaction styles, child and device positioning, social To begin to answer these questions, and inspired by aspects, and app genres. These findings point both to Anthony et al.’s study of YouTube videos showing opportunities for research and starting points for design. touchscreen use by people with motor impairments [3], we decided to follow a similar route and study YouTube videos Author Keywords of infants and toddlers using tablets. The videos provided us Baby; infant; toddler; young child; iPad; tablet; Android; with examples of real-world use of the devices and helped mobile device; touchscreen. us identify patterns of use by age group. ACM Classification Keywords Based on our analysis, a majority of children aged 12 to 17 H.5.m. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI): months in the videos in our dataset showed at least Miscellaneous. moderate ability to use the tablets. For children aged two, it was over 90 percent who displayed this ability level. Our INTRODUCTION analysis also includes trends in interaction styles, child and We know very little about the use of computers by children device positioning, social aspects, and app genres. under the age of three. The historical reasons are that interactions through widely available hardware required the In the following sections we first discuss related research, use of an indirect pointing device or keyboard until a few including developmental milestones, child development years ago, which could still be challenging at age three or theories, and existing research on computer and television four [10, 11, 12, 27, 29]. Tablets have lifted this restriction, use by young children. We then present the research as interacting through touch matches the motor abilities of questions, method, and results of the study, followed by a much younger children [6]. discussion of the results and future work, and the conclusion. Paste the appropriate copyright/license statement here. ACM now supports three different publication options: RELATED RESEARCH • ACM copyright: ACM holds the copyright on the work. This is the historical approach. Developmental Milestones • License: The author(s) retain copyright, but ACM receives an To better understand infants and toddlers and how they may exclusive publication license. use computers it is useful to refer to developmental • Open Access: The author(s) wish to pay for the work to be open access. The additional fee must be paid to ACM. milestones. The United States Centers for Disease Control This text field is large enough to hold the appropriate release statement (CDC) is one of many agencies and associations throughout assuming it is single-spaced in TimesNewRoman 8 point font. Please do the world to publish these. They are collections of typical not change or modify the size of this text box. Every submission will be assigned their own unique DOI string to be included here. behaviors by age, and mostly intended for parents to as children adapt to their environment. Socio-cultural quickly identify any developmental delays. approaches, such as those developed by Lev Vygotsky made a greater emphasis on the social aspects of learning Below, we present relevant developmental milestones for and the tools available in the environment, and argue that key age groups, based on a brochure from the CDC [6]. learning and development have to be understood within a These correspond to the age groups we used in our analysis particular socio-cultural context [9]. of the videos. More recent systems approaches (e.g., connectionism) to By six months of age, children are typically able to development connect Piagetian and socio-cultural recognize familiar faces, play with others, and respond to approaches with what we know about the biology of the emotions. They can recognize their name, respond to brain [31]. sounds by making sounds, and can vocalize vowel sounds. They are curious about items around them, often reaching One of the main emphases of these systems approaches is for them, or bringing them to their mouth. They can support the notion of embodiment [31]. They see learning and their weight on their legs when standing, and begin to sit development occurring through interactions between the without support. brain, the body, and the environment (including other people). When we learn to complete a task, we learn how to When they reach one year of age, children typically show do it with our bodies, using the resources available in the behaviors related to attachment to primary caregivers, such environment. As learning, change, and development occur, as crying when they leave, and being nervous around the brain, the body, and the environment learn, change, and strangers. They can respond to simple spoken requests, can develop together. use simple gestures, such as waving goodbye, and begin to say simple words such as “mom” or “dad”. They explore These approaches also bring a “biological systems” view of objects by interacting with them in various ways (e.g., the brain, with small components working together to hitting, shaking), look at the right picture or object when it accomplish tasks, and knowledge representations, is named, copy gestures, and can poke with the index behaviors, and skills emerging over time [31]. Emerging finger. This suggests they would be able to perform simple skills, for example, are likely to show a great deal of interactions with a touchscreen device. variability initially, with the best alternatives becoming more likely over time. This also links to the concept of At 18 months, children typically become more social in plasticity, where it is much easier to change behavior and their behavior, for example, being able to say several single learn new skills for younger people (they also show greater words, handing objects to others as part of play, showing variability in behavior) but it is more challenging later in affection to loved ones, and using pointing gestures to bring life. attention to something. They know about the purpose of common objects, participate in pretend play, and are able to How does all this link to tablets? Tablets have opened up a scribble on their own. In terms of gross motor skills, they significant opportunity for change in early childhood are typically able to walk alone, and can also drink from a environments. They may be the most malleable tools cup and eat with the help of a spoon. The use of purposeful infants and toddlers have ever been able to use. The pointing and scribbling suggests more advanced problem is that we know very little about how they are interactions with touchscreen devices may be possible. being used, and what impact they are having on children. By their second birthday, children typically copy behavior Screens, Computers, and Young Children they see in parents and older children, and can get excited There are some clues as to what to expect from infants and when playing in a space where there are other children. toddlers’ use of tablets based on what we know from the They can recognize the names of familiar people and literature on young children (generally aged three and objects, follow simple instructions, speak using short older) and their use of computers, and what we know about sentences, and repeat words. They may be able to sort items children and television. by shape and color, play simple make-believe games, begin to show hand preference, and can name items in a picture A first question to ask would be how much time children book. In terms of skills that would impact touchscreen use, spend in front of screens. An Australian study of thousands they are typically able to make copies of straight lines and of children who were randomly sampled found that two to circles. three year old children spent a mean of almost two hours a day of screen time during weekdays in 2006, but there were Child Development no reports of videogame or computer time for that age How do children change as they go through these group. For three to four year olds, weekday videogame and milestones? Child development researchers study change in computer time averaged 6 and 17 minutes a day children. Perhaps the best-known theories on child respectively in 2007 [30].