Dr Gemma Taylor G.Taylor4@salford.ac.uk
Associate Professor/Reader
Can 3-year-old children learn verbs using an educational touchscreen app?
Taylor, Gemma; Westermann, Gert; Monaghan, Padraic
Authors
Gert Westermann
Padraic Monaghan
Abstract
Introduction: Research demonstrates that children can learn nouns using touchscreen apps, however there has been less attention to whether apps can also promote verb learning. In addition, only a few studies have investigated the role of adult-child co-use for facilitating language learning from touchscreen apps. Method: In the present study, 3-year-old children were taught three novel verbs in a live condition or with an app. Children in the app condition either used the app in a child-led interaction or an adult-led interaction. Children's verb learning was assessed using a three-choice pointing task. Results and discussion: Only children in the live condition showed evidence of verb learning and performed above chance, and there were no differences in performance by children in the app conditions. Children therefore did not show evidence of verb learning from our experimental app. Further research therefore needs to investigate different strategies for adult-child co-use and the role of different app features for supporting children's verb learning from apps.
Citation
Taylor, G., Westermann, G., & Monaghan, P. (in press). Can 3-year-old children learn verbs using an educational touchscreen app?. Frontiers, 2, 1429845. https://doi.org/10.3389/fdpys.2024.1429845
| Journal Article Type | Article |
|---|---|
| Acceptance Date | Sep 17, 2024 |
| Online Publication Date | Oct 2, 2024 |
| Deposit Date | Oct 1, 2024 |
| Publicly Available Date | Oct 2, 2024 |
| Journal | Frontiers in Developmental Psychology |
| Print ISSN | 0160-9009 |
| Electronic ISSN | 2813-7779 |
| Publisher | University of Nebraska Press |
| Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
| Volume | 2 |
| Pages | 1429845 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.3389/fdpys.2024.1429845 |
| Keywords | verb learning, touchscreen apps, language, word learning, educational technology, children |
Files
Accepted Version
(402 Kb)
PDF
Copyright Statement
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.