Cognitive Development In Digital Contexts

Cognitive Development in Digital Contexts investigates the impact of screen media on key aspects of children and adolescents’ cognitive development. Highlighting how screen media impact cognitive development, the book addresses a topic often neglected amid societal concerns about pathological media use and vulnerability to media effects, such as aggression, cyber-bullying and Internet addiction. It addresses children and adolescents’ cognitive development involving their interactions with parents, early language development, imaginary play, attention, memory, and executive control, literacy and academic performance. Covers the impact of digital from both theoretical and practical perspectives Investigates effects of digital media on attention, memory, language and executive functioning Examines video games, texting, and virtual reality as contexts for learning Explores parent-child interactions around media Considers the development of effective educational media Addresses media literacy and critical thinking about media Considers social policy for increasing access to high quality education media and the Internet Provides guidance for parents on navigating children’s technology usage

In the United States and in many other countries around the world, digital games have become an integral part of children’s lives. Discussions of research on youth and digital games often focus solely on negative effects (e.g., of violent video games), but this is far from the whole story. As natural problem-solving activities, digital games provide a rich context for applied cognition. This volume explores topics such as: The benefits of digital games for children and adolescents’ cognitive skills The nature of their learning from educational media The influence of developmental factors on their interactions with digital games The use of developmental research and established educational practice to create effective educational games that they will play. This is the 139th volume in this series. Its mission is to provide scientific and scholarly presentations on cutting edge issues and concepts in child and adolescent development. Each volume focuses on a specific new direction or research topic and is edited by experts on that topic.

In the United States and in many other countries around the world, digital games have become an integral part of children’s lives. Discussions of research on youth and digital games often focus solely on negative effects (e.g., of violent video games), but this is far from the whole story. As natural problem-solving activities, digital games provide a rich context for applied cognition. This volume explores topics such as: The benefits of digital games for children and adolescents’ cognitive skills The nature of their learning from educational media The influence of developmental factors on their interactions with digital games The use of developmental research and established educational practice to create effective educational games that they will play. This is the 139th volume in this series. Its mission is to provide scientific and scholarly presentations on cutting edge issues and concepts in child and adolescent development. Each volume focuses on a specific new direction or research topic and is edited by experts on that topic.

International Perspectives on Digital Media and Early Literacy evaluates the use and impact of digital devices for social interaction, language acquisition, and early literacy. It explores the role of interactive mediation as a tool for using digital media and provides empirical examples of best practice for digital media targeting language teaching and learning. The book brings together a range of international contributions and discusses the increasing trend of digitalization as an additional resource in early childhood literacy. It provides a broad insight into current research on the potential of digital media in inclusive settings by integrating multiple perspectives from different scientific fields: (psycho)linguistics, cognitive science, language didactics, developmental psychology, technology development, and human–machine interaction. Drawing on a large body of research, it shows that crucial early experiences in communication and social learning are the basis for later academic skills. The book is structured to display children’s first developmental steps in learning in interaction with digital media and highlight various domains of early digital media use in family, kindergarten, and primary schools. This book will appeal to practitioners, academics, researchers, and students with an interest in early education, literacy education, digital education, the sociology of digital culture and social interaction, school reform, and teacher education.

Screen time, defined as estimates of child time spent with digital media, is considered harmful to very young children. At the same time, the use of digital media by children under five years of age has increased dramatically, and with the advent of mobile and streaming media can occur anywhere and at any time. Digital media has become an integral part of family life. Imprecise global screen time estimates do not capture multiple factors that shape family media ecology. In this Element, the authors discuss the need to shift the lens from screen time measures to measures of family media ecology, describe the new Dynamic, Relational, Ecological Approach to Media Effects Research (DREAMER) framework, and more comprehensive digital media assessments. The authors conclude this Element with a roadmap for future research using the DREAMER framework to better understand how digital media use is associated with child outcomes.

With digital screens becoming increasingly ubiquitous in the lives of children, from their homes to their classrooms, understanding the influence of these technologies on the ways children read takes on great importance. The aim of this edited volume is to examine how advances in technology are shaping children’s reading skills and development. The chapters in this volume explore the influence of various aspects of digital texts, the child’s cognitive and motivational skills, and the child’s environment on reading development in digital contexts. Each chapter draws upon the expertise of scientists and researchers across countries and disciplines to review what is currently known about the influence of technology on reading, how it is studied, and to offer new insights and research directions based on recent work.