ABSTRACT

Mobile devices are now ubiquitous across communities of all income levels, with very young children spending a great deal of time on smartphones and tablets even before they begin formal schooling. If this time could be channeled towards fostering school readiness, it might help narrow the SES opportunity gap. To date, however, little research has examined the effects of preschoolers’ home use of educational apps. The current study evaluated the Khan Academy Kids (Khan Kids) app with children from families with low incomes. We employed a randomized controlled trial to evaluate the effects of home use of the app on 4- and 5-year-olds’ emergent literacy skills. At baseline, parents reported that their preschoolers used mobile media 99 minutes per day, with very little of this time described as educational. After a pretest assessment, the Khan Kids app was used an average of 13 minutes per day for 10 weeks and was well received. Children who used this app showed increases in their emergent literacy skills compared to children provided with age-appropriate apps not targeting these skills. Results suggest that educational apps could provide a practical tool for fostering academic success and narrowing the SES opportunity gap.

摘要

现在，移动设备在各个收入水平的社区中无处不在，很小的孩子甚至在开始接受正规教育之前就花费大量时间在智能手机和平板电脑上。如果可以将这段时间用于培养入学准备，则可能有助于缩小SES机会差距。但是，迄今为止，很少有研究检查学龄前儿童在家中使用教育应用程序的影响。当前的研究使用来自低收入家庭的孩子评估了可汗学院儿童（Khan Kids）应用程序。我们采用了一项随机对照试验来评估该应用的家庭使用对4岁和5岁儿童紧急识字能力的影响。基线时，父母报告说，他们的学龄前儿童每天使用移动媒体99分钟，其中很少有时间被描述为有教育意义。经过预测试评估，Khan Kids应用平均每天使用13分钟，持续10周，受到好评。与提供不针对这些技能的适合年龄的应用程序的儿童相比，使用此应用程序的儿童显示出了更高的识字能力。结果表明，教育应用程序可以为培养学术成功和缩小SES机会差距提供实用工具。